Dead End Kids exposes both the depravity and the humanity in gang life through the eyes of a teenaged girl named Cara, a member of a Kansas City gang. In this shocking yet compassionate account, Mark Fleisher shows how gang girls’ lives are shaped by poverty, family disorganization, and parental neglect.

No one exemplifies the angst of the Depression era street kid more than The Dead End Kids. They were the stars of Sidney Kingsley's 1935 play, Dead End and reprised their roles in Samuel Goldwyn's 1937 Hollywood film version. The movie defined the theme of slum dramas for the juvenile rebellion films of subsequent decades. The Dead End Kids were Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsly. The best of their films were the gangster movies where the boys collided with the likes of Humphrey Bogart in Dead End and Crime School, James Cagney in Angels with Dirty Faces and John Garfield in They Made Me a Criminal. They bandied about light weights like Ronald Reagan in lackluster efforts like Hell's Kitchen and Angels Wash Their Faces before being reformed by a military academy in On Dress Parade. Their original reign was short lived, not because they ran out of steam but because they had to be toned down because of public criticism. It didn't matter because The Dead End Kids mutated into several splinter groups that starred in various configurations of the original members for the next quarter century, carving out a unique niche in motion picture history. One of the uncharted tributaries of this history is the solo careers of the actors who played the Dead End Kids. There were careers of mixed blessings after the initial stardom and each member faced and dealt with the typecasting dilemma in different ways and various degrees of success. There was plenty of heartbreak and disappointment along a way that started with Dead End in 1935 and ended with Dr. Bernard Punsly's death in 2004. Beyond Dead End: The Solo Careers of The Dead End Kids chronicles a saga of mixed blessings where each member faced and dealt with the typecasting dilemma in different ways and various degrees of success

Teenage Wasteland provides memorable portraits of "rock and roll kids" and shrewd analyses of their interests in heavy metal music and Satanism. A powerful indictment of the often manipulative media coverage of youth crises and so-called alternative programs designed to help "troubled" teens, Teenage Wasteland draws new conclusions and presents solid reasons to admire the resilience of suburbia's dead end kids. "A powerful book."—Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times Book Review "[Gaines] sheds light on a poorly understood world and raises compelling questions about what society might do to help this alienated group of young people."—Ann Grimes, Washington Post Book World "There is no comparable study of teenage suburban culture . . . and very few ethnographic inquiries written with anything like Gaines's native gusto or her luminous eye for detail."—Andrew Ross, Transition "An outstanding case study. . . . Gaines shows how teens engage in cultural production and how such social agency is affected by economic transformations and institutional interventions."—Richard Lachman, Contemporary Sociology "The best book on contemporary youth culture."—Rolling Stone

Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.

Meet and become friends with many of the actors from the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys! Since he began collecting Movie Memorabilia on the Dead End Kids in 1964, author Richard Roat has had the great fortune to develop personal relationships with David Gorcey, Stanley Clements, Gabe Dell, Bernard Punsly, Huntz Hall, Billy Benedict, Frankie Thomas, Eddie Le Roy, Brandy Gorcey (daughter of Leo Gorcey), Gary Hall (son of Huntz Hall), and Leo Gorcey Jr. (son of Leo Gorcey). This book draws upon those acquaintances and his talking with Billy Halop, Bennie Bartlett, Johnny Duncan, Ward Wood, Dick Chandlee, Eugene Francis, Harris Berger, Charles Peck, Ronald Sinclair, and more! Lavished with many photos from the films from the author's personal collection, this is one book you'll need to have in your collection, tough guy!

Their homes, their parents, their friends -- ever since first banding together and going out on their own, the Runaways have been no stranger to loss. Now, though they appear to finally be safe, none of them can get their minds off everything they've lost or given up. As they attempt to make merry despite their melancholy, the Runaways are struck by yet another catastrophe. A mysterious aircraft flying over their Malibu home is somehow lured to it, resulting in a fiery crash. As the team frantically digs through the rubble, they find that their home wasn't the only casualty: Yet another member of the team has fallen. COLLECTING: Runaways Vol. 3 #11-14, What If The Runaways Became the Young Avengers?

Three teens. One heist. No hope. The DEAD END KIDS return! Three teens. One heist. No hope. Seven years after the deadly events of September 11th, three teens struggle with the long-term fallout of that tragic day. But these former friends are brought back together when they find themselves in the crosshairs of a local drug dealer who's out for blood. Can they put their personal traumas aside long enough to work together and survive? No Heroine's Frank Gogol reteams with Nenad Cviticanin for an all-new entry in the Dead End Kids saga. Collecting Dead End Kids: The Suburban Job #1-4