Bus Stop Baby by Fleur Hitchcock

When sisters Amy and Eden walk home after getting off the bus after school, they never would expect to find an abandoned baby, but they do.

After taking it home to their dad and calling the police, the story follows the girls learning more about another abandoned baby that was found back in 1966.

As their grandma, Zelda helps research the baby from the past, she acts shifty whilst also being overly keen to help investigate the latest abandoned baby's history and see if anyone in their village saw anything the night she was found.

Zelda then reveals a huge secret the family have to adjust to as they begin to track down a special new member of their family...

Throughout this story, the girls face how they to were abandoned in a way by their mum as she lives abroad in Australia, Amy also has to deal with friendship issues as she questions all of them after her Christmas money and her new purse go missing.

A hidden secret can have the biggest of impacts only the story here showed us family comes first as they stick together and embraced the new. Zelda was a lovely caring grandma and Amy a determined young girl. It was gutting they couldn't keep the baby and I would've loved to see whom was the abandoning parent in the end as I wondered if it would be another young girl plot twist.

Stargazing For Beginners by Jenny McLachlan

Meg is left on her own suddenly with her baby sister Elsa and their dog Pongo after their mum spontaneously gets offered to go abroad and help children suffering and in need of nursing. Their granddad lives nearby and he offers to help but his house is full of experiments and unsafe for them to live in.

Meg loves space and has the chance to visit Houston NASA if she wins the competition she's entering through her school in a pair with Ed but she struggles to get her speech ight.  She's known there as a geek, especially by Bella and Ed from her class.

However, after turning up late to school and ending up in detention, she meets a group of other students in the gifted group she gets put into with Annie, a cerebral palsy sufferer, Rose a shy girl and sporty Jackson. They call themselves the Broken Biscuit Club after the teacher gets them boxes of the broken biscuits at each meeting.

Ed then asks her to the school dance whilst he later proves how much he likes her after as dramatic turn of events lead him to giving up his speech to try and  win the competition as her grandad's life is hanging on the balance in a quarry...

 Then her mum finally comes home after realizing her children do need her but will they want her back after everything?

A book similar in style to Lily Alone by Jacqueline Wilson only these do have an adult nearby even if he doesn't act as responsible as he should do. Meg is under so much stress for a young teen and her mum is a irresponsible parent for leaving her especially to cope with her baby sister too. It was a sad but hopeful book as she didn't give up no matter how tough things got. It was well written and the conclusion was nothing like I expected for this book, it was dramatic and heartstopping, a true thrilling end which you will remember!

Lily Alone by Jacqueline Wilson

When Lily's mum goes away on holiday with her new boyfriend, she supposedly leaves Lily's brother Baxter's dad in charge of the kids, though he never turns up.

Lily is only eleven and has to be Lilymum as she calls herself when looking after the siblings, Pixie, Bliss and Baxter who are all younger. As they her teacher come knocking getting suspicious when Lily isn't in school for three days and can't see her mum, he grows suspicious and so Lily takes herself and the others to camp out in the local park.

It's very dangerous as they stay there and forage for food whilst trying not to get noticed and even resort to desperate enough measures they have to sneak into someone's house and try to steal food!

As well as that, Bliss climbs a tree and gets into serious trouble as the branch prepares to snap, changing their lives in many ways as their mum turns up, arrested by the police and social workers split Lily from her beloved siblings.

Lily may have day dreamed about living alone when she's older, but she would do anything for her siblings as she does when she's forced into this horrible situation. All about neglect and not coping on her mum's half as she herself wants to just be a kid in some ways and her own idea of fun. It was a gripping read seeing how the children survived as they lived wild in a public park where it is obviously unsafe to stay.

Love From Lexie: The Lost & Found No 1 by Cathy Cassidy

Lexi's mum abandoned her when she was nine after going out and not coming back, now aged thirteen, Lexi is with a foster family, Mandy and Jon with a foster sister who's slightly older, Bex. She's surrounded herself with lost items she's found in charity shops.

At school, she's keen along with her best friend, Happi and roped in foster sister Bex, to arrange a group for lost and found misfit students to feel free to meet up at to make friends and it may also help to keep their library where they hold the meetings open.

When Marley, a misunderstood student and Lexi's paths cross, he mistakes the group for auditions of a musical kind and takes along other musicians with him to what he believes are for a band. Despite the mix up, all their talent would be going to waste so they decide to create a band and so The Lost and Found are born! However trouble ensues as the council plans to close ALL the local libraries leaving them nowhere to meet up or any of the other groups to meet who use the library. As they begin to campaign to keep the library open, local celebrity Louisa Winters helps them out and from Lexie she has a huge shock I never saw coming at all as does Marley as he gets close to Lexie.

All the group have their secrets which I'm sure will be revealed little by little over time as the series develops on but for now the hints show many serious topics will be brought up from refugees, mental health, parenting and more.

The book is very serious as Lexie feels lost and that by writing letters to her mum she'll come back to her again. It's a sad premise but we see how settled and happy day to day she is now and hope is a good thing to keep for so long as she realizes deeper on into the story as you'll always get hurt but not everything is as bad as it may seem or feel.

A great new series beginning from Cathy once again!