Worried and hurt when her boyfriend Nick takes off without a word to anyone, Robyn Hunter decides, after some fruitless searching, that she needs to find a new preoccupation in life. Her friend Billy, a dedicated do-gooder, suggests that she volunteer at a local drop-in centre for homeless people and so Robyn finds herself helping [...]
When his father offers three meals a day to Joe, a homeless man who hangs around in front of the family store, in exchange for sweeping the sidewalk every morning, a young boy wants to know why they are helping the man. His father explains that every one needs to know that they have [...]
Lily likes walking home from school with her mother, waving to Frank, the crossing guard, and visiting Mrs. Chan’s store for milk and the occasional treat. But, when she bumps into a homeless man selling newspapers on her street, Lily is overcome with shyness and fear. The man’s raggedy appearance and wild hair, and his [...]
Fifteen year-old Ian needs 40 hours of community service if he wants to pass Grade 10 Civics. Since he’s left it so long, he ends up in one of the most demanding volunteer placements available, serving food to homeless men at The Club, a soup kitchen on the wrong side of town. Though [...]
The first thing Tom remembers is walking, his back and backside screaming in pain. He has forgotten everything that came before, family, friends, school, his last name. In his backpack he finds a notebook with notes about Mozart and a candy heart imprinted with the words You are nice, so he concludes that [...]
Fourteen year-old Dana is a runaway, living on the streets of Toronto. Begging for spare change to buy coffee and a doughnut, and protecting her rapidly dwindling possessions from thieves is a far cry from her comfortable life in the suburbs, but she cannot go home.
Fortunately, Dana is adopted into a street family. [...]
When their mother dies and their father sinks into a depression and stops noticing them, twelve year-old Sydney and her eight year-old brother, Turk, decide to run away and return to the farm where they spent the happiest summer of their lives.
The two children sneak onto a train going west and ride the rails from [...]
