foster care

"[A] romance about a teen whisked off by an anonymous benefactor to a prestigious boarding school for the arts in Michigan. Sixteen-year-old Jacaranda Abbott has spent years moving between foster homes due to her mother's imprisonment for attempted murder of an abusive boyfriend. When a video of Jacaranda singing at the Miami Publix supermarket at which she works goes viral, it changes the course of her life. The admission essay she writes to Midwestern Arts Academy sets up the details of this story, giving way to a long series of confessional, heartfelt, and unanswered emails directed to Mr. Smith, as she dubs the mystery man responsible for the fairy-tale scenario now playing out"--Kirkus Reviews.

"In this high-interest accessible novel for teen readers, Kevin makes a startling discovery that he hides from his abusive foster parents"--Provided by publisher.

When Lucas Silver, who is trying to run away, and his friend Miles and two girls they know, Jasmine and Vanessa, step out of Hob and Bogie's Olde Curiosity Shoppe, they discover that they have agreed to play a match of Champion's Quest, a role-playing game--played from inside the game with goblins, trolls, witches, and a three-headed monster.

Carlie, Thomas & Harvey are foster kids who are convinced they are pinballs, bounced from place to place. This upbeat story of children disappointed by their parents is often funny and always poignant.

When Max becomes the foster child of an elderly woman who grows and makes foods and crafts from lavender, Jessie, still recovering from her bone marrow transplant, not only helps with the business, she also investigates who is trying to shut it down.

Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery -- but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls apart over a lover. Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced to a life in prison. White Oleander is the unforgettable story of astrid's journey through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in impossible circumstances.

Told in their separate voices, eighteen-year-old Will who has aged out of foster care, and fifteen-year-old Zoe, whose father beats her, set out for Las Vegas together, but their escape may prove more dangerous than what they left behind.

With her con-man father in prison, fifteen-year-old Maya sets out from Reno, Nevada, for Boise, Idaho, hoping to stay out of foster care by finding an aunt she never knew existed, but a fellow runaway complicates all of her scientifically-devised plans.

Born as a ward of the state of Maine, Victoria Rowell's mother was a blueblood and her father was an unknown African American. The series of women who raised her, often unknowingly, helped her rise of the foster care system and into New York City's worlds of ballet, acting, and adulthood. Victoria became an accomplished television and film star.