MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

Sheila.E. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, 2013.

At first Curtis isn't that worried when his mother doesn't come home after her all-night shift at the gas bar. After all, she promised that she would never leave him again. For a time Curtis manages on his own, looking after himself and his five-year-old brother, Artie, and keeping their mother's absence a secret. But when the credit card maxes out and the landlord starts demanding the rent, it's more than a twelve-year-old can handle. Just in time, the boys make friends with cranky old Mrs. Burt who lives across the street. And when the authorities start poking around, she comes up with a brilliant and daring plan that may save them all - or end in total disaster ...