Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Level: 14 and up
# of Pages: 198
RAC Book: Yes
2008 Iowa Award Winner
Maybe lives on the street with several other teens. They have all been forced into a life on the street and survive by panhandling and digging through dumpsters. Every time they are approached by someone who wants to help them get off the street they ignore the help and choose to stay in their position. Due to the extreme circumstances and bitter cold they start dying one by one.
Tears is a twelve year old girl who was kicked out of her house when she reported that her stepfather was abusing her and her mother failed to believe her. Maybe begins to see how living on the streets is not a choice after all, but the final solution when the other choices have been exhausted. She decides to make sure that Tears does not face the same fate as many of the other teens.
This book tries to show teens what it’s like to live on the street with the cold, panhandling, disease, and the way people mistreat the homeless. Although many of them have had terrible people take advantage of them in their lives and feel like they can take care of themselves, it still seems unbelievable that these teens would choose to freeze under a bridge instead of going to a shelter when the opportunity arises. The lives of these homeless and abused teens are so far from what many students know that I’m not sure they will be able to really understand these characters.