Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.

With love and determination befitting the "world's greatest family," twelve-year-old Deza Malone, her older brother Jimmie, and their parents endure tough times in Gary, Indiana, and later Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression.

"Eleven-year-old Fern helps to take care of her impoverished family by foraging for food in the forest, but when a fracking company rolls into town, she realizes that her peaceful woods and her family's livelihood could be threatened"--

During the Great Depression, seven-year-old Ruby's family leaves their Oklahoma home to seek work in California, where Ruby meets Dorothea Lange, who takes a photograph that becomes known as "Migrant mother." Includes historical note.

"Most teens daydream about things they don't have and places they've never been. But seventeen-year-old Sweet Potato Jones doesn't have the luxury of such indulgences. For the past ten years, she's been focused on raising her three younger siblings. Sweet Potato never wanted anything for herself. Just a roof over their heads, someplace safe to live, food, and clothing. She never dared dream of anything more. The family finally catches a break when...

It's 1998 in Colombo, and the Sri Lankan Civil War is raging... but Kavi is frightened of something even worse than war. Her scholarship to an elite school was everything she wanted, but nothing is going according to plan, and she's terrified that everyone will find out who she really is. As she tries to fit in with her new wealthy and self-assured classmates, Kavi finds herself covering up her real life--a poor village girl with a mother who's chosen...

A poor Japanese woman maneuvers events to change the lazy habits of her son.

"Picu's family is very poor. In the dry foothills, her mother must feed fourteen people--her kids, her relatives' kids, and the hired hand's kids--every day. One morning Picu, the youngest sister, is sent to get a marrow bone from a faraway neighbor. The bone will add flavor, and nutrition, to the lunchtime soup for all the hungry mouths. Her mother warns her not to dawdle on the two-hour walk, each way, through the wild landscape. But Picu can't...