The Runaways

A novel for young adults

Children's Literature

Twelve-year-old Nick, struggling with the news that his mother and her new husband are now going to have a baby, decides to run away from home. Turns out Nick has more in common than he realizes with Luther, the old homeless man who hangs about the streets of Andersonville. This is a story about friendship blooming in unlikely soil, and about a boy coming to terms with his changing relationships with the adults in his life. Butcher's novel reads easily, and young Nick is a likeable character.