Restrained, unsentimental language characterizes Clay's story, that of an eleven-year-old New Yorker living by himself on the streets after his mother disappears from their welfare hotel. The manner in which Clay's family gradually spirals downward is believably presented: the loss of his father's position as an art director, his seemingly hopeless unemployment and eventual abandonment of his family, his mother's efforts to support Clay during her pregnancy, and so on as their financial situation relentlessly worsens. Clay barely exists by learning the survival techniques of the homeless people around him, and by a friendship he makes with two older men also living on the street. Although he is eventually reunited with his mother, Clay's sense of betrayal and his harrowing experience will alter his life forever. (Ages 9-13)