The Only Road

Ruby on the Outside

Hatch: The Overthrow

Running on the Roof of the World

Donuthead

Saving Lucas Biggs

The World Ends in April

The Last Dogs: Dark Waters (The Last Dogs, 2)

For fans of Rebecca Stead and Joan Bauer comes a scrappy, poignant, uplifting debut about family, friendship, and the importance of learning both how to offer help and how to accept it.

"A big-hearted novel with characters I wish were my friends in real life." --Gennifer Choldenko, author of the Al Capone at Alcatraz series

Jeanne Ann is smart, stubborn, living in an orange van, and determined to find a permanent address before the start of seventh grade.

Cal is tall, sensitive, living in a humongous house across the street, and determined to save her.

Jeanne Ann is roughly as enthusiastic about his help as she is about living in a van.

As the two form a tentative friendship that grows deeper over alternating chapters, they're buoyed by a cast of complex, oddball characters, who let them down, lift them up, and leave you cheering. Debut novelist Danielle Svetcov shines a light on a big problem without a ready answer, nailing heartbreak and hope, and pulling it off with a humor and warmth that make the funny parts of Jeanne Ann and Cal's story cathartic and the difficult parts all the more moving.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

The Only Road

Alexandra Diaz, 2016

Ruby on the Outside

Nora Raleigh Baskin, 2015

Hatch: The Overthrow

Kenneth Oppel, 2020

Running on the Roof of the World

Jess Butterworth, 2017

Donuthead

Sue Stauffacher, 2003

Saving Lucas Biggs

Marisa De Los Santos, David Teague, 2014

The World Ends in April

Stacy Mcanulty, 2019

The Last Dogs: Dark Waters (The Last Dogs, 2)

Allen Douglas, Christopher Holt, 2013