A Garden of Sand (Thompson, Earl)

Destitution, hunger, cruelty, rootlessness—all the odds stand against Jacky, the young boy at the center of this powerful, popular American classic, yet still he prevails. Resourcefully, doggedly, Jacky nurtures his spirit of independence, his capacity to love, and his faith in a nation's dream in a journey that takes him from Wichita to Corpus Christi and from poverty to possibility.