Synopses & Reviews
My fingers search the cardboard container, but I’ve finished the fries. I squirt ketchup on my fingers and lick it off. I’m never full. I think it was one of the reasons I had to leave, or, rather, my mother kicked me out. Jenna’s a runaway, but I’m a throwaway. Tossed out. Like garbage.
Keep your wits about you. Check your back.
Do what it takes to survive on the streets.
Dylan is living on the streets not through any choice of his own, unlike some of the teenagers he meets in the same situation. He’s been cut loose by his unstable mother, and lost most contact with his two younger brothers. He has nothing but his backpack stuffed with a few precious belongings and the homeless kids he meets. At least he has his theories. No one can take those away from him. Like how every fourth person throws him spare change; how no one does anything for anyone without a price; and how he just might be able to find a place in this complicated world.
Disturbing, gritty, painful, hopeful—this is a story of a sixteen-year-old determined to survive against all odds.
About the Author
Barbara Haworth-Attard is the author of many novels for young adults. About this book, Ms. Haworth-Attard says, “One morning I was walking past a storefront downtown and a boy, pale faced, eyes sporting purple rings of exhaustion, mumbled, ‘Do you have any change?’ From that moment, Dylan’s story began to take shape, a story of survival on any street in any city in the world.” Ms. Haworth-Attard lives in Canada.