Sometimes you have to run away to find your way home.

Twelve-year-old Alex Green has learned not to get her hopes up. After years in foster care and more homes than she can count, she knows the drill: keep your head down, stay in the in-between, and never let anyone see you cry. So when things turn dangerous at her latest placement, Alex does the only thing she’s ever been good at — she runs.

What she doesn’t expect is the Bowditches: a warm, ordinary family who take her in for a single weekend and feel, impossibly, like home. But a weekend isn’t forever, and when Alex lands in a group home instead, she’s certain her one chance at a real family has slipped through her fingers.

At Harper House, surrounded by other kids the world has written off, Alex finds the things she didn’t know she needed — a true friend in Salma, a counselor who won’t give up on her, and the space to finally face the past she’s spent years trying to forget: the home she loved, the brother she lost, and the truth about the accident that changed everything.

To reach the family she’s always wanted, Alex will have to do the hardest thing of all — stop running, and tell the truth.

Set in 1994 West Virginia, Runaway Home is a tender, hopeful middle grade novel about grief, friendship, found family, and the quiet courage it takes to let yourself be loved. Perfect for readers of Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War That Saved My Life and Lauren Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea.

Advance reading copies are uncorrected. Librarians, educators, and reviewers who enjoy emotional, character-driven middle grade are warmly invited to request a copy.