Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope

""Almost Home" is that rare and special book that inspires us to make a difference."--Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey"Almost Home" tells the remarkable true stories of six young people as they struggle to find home, stopping along the way at Covenant House, the largest charity serving homeless, trafficked, and runaway youth in the Americas. This book offers a glimpse into the lives of the 1.6 million young people in North America who run away or are kicked out of their homes each year, grappling with issues such as family violence, prostitution, teen parenthood, rejection based on sexual orientation, and aging out of foster care without a family. Full of hope, compassion, and practical suggestions on how to fight youth homelessness, "Almost Home" shows us how to help young people attain the bright futures they deserve."With narrative precision and journalistic detail, the heartbreaking trajectory from abandonment and abuse to teen homelessness is laid bare in this book. . . . The compassionately told stories of survival are almost miraculous.""--Publishers Weekly""The trick of engaging readers on public policy matters is to tell human stories. Suddenly, the person we dismiss, fear, or even judge is alive before us and utterly familiar, and we learn, as we do in this powerful and inspirational book, the true meaning of courage, grace, and hope."--Steve Lopez, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Soloist""The moving stories here offer a sense of promise, a belief that with guidance, empathy, and some semblance of home even the most wounded teens can thrive."--Alex Kotlowitz, bestselling author of "There Are No Children Here"""Almost Home" accomplishes something very rare in a book about the homeless--it is both descriptive and prescriptive. A vital read for anyone who cares about the future of our society."--Dale Maharidge, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "And Their Children After Them"