Johannes Verne is a young orphan raised in part by the Indians of the desert. He grows to be a rugged adventurer, a man bold enough to stake a claim in early-day Los Angeles.

When sickness decimates his fishing village, an orphan named Leif flees north in a cedar canoe, journeying along a brutal but beautiful coastline.

Since his mother's death, Jayson, twelve, has focused on basketball and surviving but he is found out and placed with an affluent foster family of a different race, and must learn to accept many changes, including facing his former teammates in a championship game.

Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.

When orphaned, eleven-year-old Pollyanna comes to live with austere and wealthy Aunt Polly, her philosophy of gladness brings happiness to her aunt and other unhappy members of the community.

David Copperfield is considered to be Charles Dickens's most autobiographical novel. He said of it: "Like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield." It is a Bildungsroman, a tale which follows the development into maturity of its narrator, David Copperfield. The Russian greats Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky both greatly admired the novel, as did Kafka, Joyce and James. Freud called it

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Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned by the age of ten, neglected by a bitter and cruel aunt, sent to a boarding school where she was both servant and student, young Gemma seemed destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman with dreams

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After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.

Orphans Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are sent to live with an eccentric grandmother that they have always believed to be dead.

In this story inspired by Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," Ana Dakkar, a freshman at Harding-Pencroft Academy, a five-year high school that graduates the best marine scientists, naval warriors, navigators, and underwater explorers in the world, makes astounding discoveries about her heritage and puts her leadership skills to the test against deadly enemies from a rival school.