Bent Northrop Memorial Library

Life is harsh in Chennai's teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter--and friendship--on an abandoned bridge. With two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul, the group forms a family of sorts. And while making a living scavenging the city's trash heaps is the pits, the...

With the new addition to the family, no one pays much attention to Frances anymore, so Frances decides to run away. Not too far, though -- just far enough so she can hear how much she'll be missed, even by baby Gloria!

After running away from an abusive home, Nick becomes the apprentice to wizard Zachariah Smallbone, the owner of a bookstore whose snarky books teach Nick the magic he will need to defeat Smallbone's nemesis, werewolf Fidelou.

"Thirteen-year-old Karma lives with her family at their raptor conservation center in Montana. When she has to take her beloved bird, Stark, the gyrfalcon she rescued, back to its owner, she's sorely disappointed. But things get worse when a car accident leaves her father and brother trapped. It's up to Karma--and a runaway boy named Cooper who ends up by her side--to survive the wilderness and find a way to rescue them"--

In 1599 England, twelve-year-old lying, thieving Will Sparrow runs away, meets many colorful characters on the road, and then reluctantly joins a traveling "oddities" exhibit, where he learns to see beyond appearances.

Rollo the troll is tired of chores, but after spending time on the tundra with various animal families, from owls to moose, he realizes that he wants to be home for Christmas even if that means behaving himself.

In England in 1346 Adrian has three problems: he is small for his twelve years, he is an albino, so people are suspicious of him, and his father wants him to be a scribe, while he wants to be an archer--but when he runs away to join his friend in the fight against the invading Scots, he learns that war can be a lot more complicated then he imagined.

"In 1845, Sammy, a Chinese American girl, and Annamae, an African American slave girl, disguise themselves as boys and travel on the Oregon Trail to California from Missouri"--

Alberto, the town's coffin maker, and Tito, a runaway boy, both lonely after suffering tragic losses, learn the power of friendship as they try to escape the shadows of their pasts.

The Boxcar Children
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny, four orphaned siblings, suddenly appear in a small town. The children make a home for themselves in an abandoned red boxcar they discover in the woods. Ambitious and resourceful, the plucky children make a happy life for themselves—until Violet gets too sick for her brothers and sister to care for her.

Surprise Island
Adventure abounds as Henry, Jessie, Violet,...