NCW Libraries

In a scheme to reunite with her estranged biological mother, foster kid Jess joins a cosplay team working toward a competition in New York, but along the way she learns the value of the family you choose for yourself.

In this twist on "The Nightingale," Little John, despite his own poverty and grief, reaches out to Gayle, an unhappy foster child living next-door who sings beautifully and hides a great secret.

A newly graduated Mila emerges from foster care to accept a job on an isolated Northern California Coast farm where she confronts haunting memories and the traumas of her fellow residents.

Unanswered questions have plagued Kentucky Kunningberg-Washington for years, ever since her parents' mysterious death in a plane crash when she was eight years old. The only answer to Kentucky's questions seems to be the small bronze key her mother entrusted to her before she died. However, Kentucky promised she would wait to investigate the key in her mother's hometown when she turned eighteen. So Kentucky spent years shuffled with her siblings around...

Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It's tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt's house is okay, it just isn't the same as being in her own space. So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she'll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help...

Zahra wishes for a sister, never dreaming that volunteering with her mother at a refugee shelter might make her wish come true.

In the first book of its kind, Toth presents the stories of five kids caught in a system in crisis, and chronicles the complexities of a culture that both liberates and hobbles its dependents. In addition to speaking to social workers, judges, officers, counselors, and psychologists, as well as to the remnants of shattered families who can't or won't raise their own children, Toth goes directly to the kids - capturing their voices and lives with striking...

"When it comes to family, Annie is in the losers bracket. While her foster parents are great (mostly), her birth family would not have been her first pick. And no matter how many times Annie tries to write them out of her life, she always gets sucked back into their drama. Love is like that. But when a family argument breaks out at Annie's swim meet and her nephew goes missing, Annie might be the only one who can get him back. With help from her friends,...

At Saint Francis Prep school in Mountain View, New Jersey, Mira, Jeremy, and Sebby come together as they struggle with romance, bullying, foster home and family problems, and mental health issues.

Relata la historia de Pelzer, quien fue abusado por su madre alcohólico por muchos años.