Can&39t Get There from Here [Paperback]

“A powerful and disturbing look at the downward spiral of despair that remains too common for too many teens (School Library Journal).”

Her street name is Maybe. She lives with a tribe of homeless teens—runaways and throwaways, kids who have no place to go other than the cold city streets, and no family except for one another. Abused, abandoned, and forgotten, they struggle against weather, hunger, and constant danger.

With the frigid winds of January comes a new girl: Tears, a twelve-year-old whose mother doesn’t believe her husband is abusive. As the other kids start to disappear—victims of violence, addiction, and exposure—Maybe tries to help Tears get off the streets…if it’s not already too late.CHAPTER ONE: NEW YEAR'S EVE

Maggot said we should go up to Times Square to watch the ball drop and pick some pockets, but we never got around to it. Instead we hung out in front of the Good Life Deli like we always did. Maggot, Rainbow, 2Moro, and me. A cold mist drifted out of the dark, the little droplets sparkling in the streetlights. Maggot and me sat under the awning of the newspaper stand on the corner. The damp matted down our hair. Black puddles dotted the street and steam rose like ghosts from the manhole covers. Rainbow sat cross-legged against the wall, loose strands of blond hair falling out of a blue wool cap, her head nodding almost down to her lap. 2Moro leaned against the streetlight with her arms crossed, not saying anything to anyone, just waiting for someone to say something to her.

It was one of those nights when there wasn't much traffic on the streets of New York. Most of the New Year's partiers were done with their stupid celebrations and back in the four-walled cells they called apartments. Prisoners of the system, Maggot said. Now, only the newspaper delivery trucks and taxis passed, their tires making squishy sounds on the wet, black pavementl