Originally published: Canada : HarperCollins, 2003.

When his volatile mother throws him out of the house and he loses contact with his two younger brothers, sixteen-year-old Dylan is forced to live on the streets and beg for money, yet through it all, he finds a way to survive. My fingers search the cardboard container, but I've finished the fries. I squirt ketchup on my fingers and lick it off. I'm never full. I think it was one of the reasons I had to leave, or, rather, my mother kicked me out. Jenna's a runaway, but I'm a throwaway, tossed out, like garbage. Keep your wits about you. Check your back. Do what it takes to survive on the streets. Dylan is living on the streets not through any choice of his own, unlike some of the teenagers he meets in the same situation. He's been cut loose by his unstable mother, and lost most contact with his two younger brothers. He has nothing but his backpack stuffed with a few precious belongings and the homeless kids he meets. At least he has his theories. No one can take those away from him. Like how every fourth person throws him spare change; how no one does anything for anyone without a price; and how he just might be able to find a place in this complicated world. Disturbing, gritty, painful, hopeful, his is a story of a sixteen-year-old determined to survive against all odds.