Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

Holly is a 12-year old homeless child (she prefers the term "gypsy") of a dead drug addicted mother. After a caring teacher gives Holly a journal, we join her for five months in her unsuccessful efforts to find a stable environment in which to live. Through her angry but often very amusing journal entries, the reader experiences a gritty, physically, and emotionally painful way of life living on the streets of "beautiful Los Angeles, CA".

Holly is a tempermental but sensible, real and believable twelve year old girl. The ending is plausible but possibly a bit too tidy.

Van Draanen shows a new but powerful rough edge to her writing.