"Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India's Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning--and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where...

The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival....

The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society. This story follows the struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society. - According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social")...

Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead and subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield Hall, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a richer life than that traditionally allowed women...

Young David Copperfield's life is happy at first, but he is forced to run away from home following the arrival of his stepfather. David is then adopted by his aunt Betsey and sent to school at Canterbury, where he meets the unctuous Uriah Heep, whose activities lead eventually to David's self-discovery.

Lucy Hart has come a long way since feeling the cold neglect of her parents, whose attention always centered around her chronically ill sister's needs. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher's aide, Lucy is able to share her love of books with bright, young students, and one in particular, a seven-year-old orphan named Christopher, has her yearning for a family of her own. The Clock Island books were Lucy's passion and refuge as a child, and now she shares...

In this sequel to Anne of Green Gables, the engaging orphan, just "half-past sixteen," becomes a schoolma'am in a small village on Prince Edward Island.

After orphan Oliver Twist asks for more food, he has to flee the workhouse and ends up on the streets of London. There he meets the Artful Dodger, who leads him to Fagin and his gang of pickpockets. When a thieving mission goes wrong, Oliver narrowly avoids prison and finds himself in the care of kind Mr. Brownlow. But Fagin and the brutal Bill Sikes go in search of the young orphan, determined to drag him back.

"One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward...

When Sara Crewe is brought from India to attend Miss Minchin's boarding school, she arrives looking rather like a princess, with trunks full of the finest clothes. Yet despite having ehr own pony and carriage, private room, and personal maid, Sara is never a snob to her fellow pupils. Instead she is kind, thoughtful and generous, and soon makes many friends. But when the terrible news of her father's death and failed financial investments arrives,...