Herrick, Steven

Weary of life with his alcoholic, abusive father, sixteen-year-old Billy packs a few belongings and hits the road, hoping for something better than what he left behind. He finds a home in an abandoned freight train outside a small town, where he falls in love with rich, restless Caitlin and befriends a fellow train resident, "old Bill," who slowly reveals a tragic past. When Billy is given a gift that changes everything, he learns not only how to forge his own path in life, but the real meaning of family.

Jack and Annabel have decided to put off university and drive around the country. It all seems wildly romantic, but when their car dies two days into the trip, they end up at George's apple orchard, figuring it's just a temporary place to stay and earn some money.

Sixteen-year-old Darcy can handle most of the challenges that come his way, but his mouth often runs ahead of his brain, leading him into trouble time and again.

In a rural Australian coal mining town shortly after World War II, teenaged Eddie makes a startling discovery when he investigates the murder of a local high school girl.

Sixteen-year-old Lucy, living in the shadow of her violent father, experiences a night of tenderness, danger, and revelation as she and Jake, her fifteen-year-old neighbor, search for a legendary wolf in the Australian outback.

A verse novel set in Australia in which two young lovers postpone college to embark on a road trip and find themselves working on an apple orchard, where they become immersed in the life of the owner's teenage daughter, who is pregnant as the result of a rape.

Sixteen-year-old Billy runs away from his alcoholic, abusive father and takes up residence in an abandoned freight car where he meets Old Bill, a fellow hobo, and together they form a friendship based on small kindnesses that change their lives.

A fourteen-year-old describes, through prose poems, his life in a small Australian town in 1962, where, since their mother's death, he and his brother have been mainly on their own to learn about life, death, and love.