Kids on their own in Children's Fiction

The Great Good Summer by Liz Garton Scanlon

• Pub Date: 2015
• Grades 4-6 interest 
• On my blog: The Great Good Summer

Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker

• Pub Date: 2012
• Grades 4-6 interest
• See also: Summer Vacation

Keeping Safe the Stars by Sheila O'Connor

• Pub Date: 2012
• Grades 4-7 interest
• When their grandfather doesn't return home, the Star siblings decide to find him. 

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Jacobsen

• Pub Date: 2011
• Grades 5-8 interest
• Jack is left at a campground by his mother, and he tries to make it to his grandmother in Boston on his own. 

Survival Strategies for the Almost Brave by Jennifer White

•  Pub Date: 2015
• Grades 4-7 interest
• Liberty and her sister are left on their own at a gas station by their unpredictable father. 

Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

• Pub Date: 2006
• Grades 5-8 interest
• Holly runs away from a foster home and travels across the country on her own. 

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

• Pub Date: 2011
• Grades 4-7 interest
• See also: Unusual Princesses 
• When their parents, the king and queen, are declared missing, then dead, Celie and her siblings must figure out how to save their kingdom on their own--with some help from the magic castle.

Miss Ellicott's School for the magically Minded by Sage Blackwood

• Pub Date: 2017
• Grades 4-6 interest
• Chantel has never been very good at deportment, but that turns out to be a good thing when the sorceresses that protect the city disappear.

Sweep by Jonathan Auxier

• Pub Date: 2018
• Grades 4-7 interest
• Nan works as a climbing boy for a chimney sweep in Victorian London. 

Most Perfect Thing in the Universe by Tricia Springstubb

• Pub Date: 2021
• Grades 4-6 interest
• See also: Animals 
• Loah's mother is always away on research trips and a medical emergency leaves Loah on her own.