Start with high-confidence runaway stories books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
Losers Bracket
Chris Crutcher
Gumshoe
Brenna Thummler
Better the Devil
Erik J. Brown
Rite of Passage
Richard Wright
On the Far Side of the Mountain
Jean Craighead George
The Journey Back
Priscilla Cummings
Runaway
Wendelin Van Draanen
Visitations
Corey Egbert
We Were Here
Matt de la Peña
The Honest Truth (scholastic Gold)
Dan Gemeinhart
Skate
Michael Harmon
Small As an Elephant
Jennifer Richard Jacobson
American Girls
Alison Umminger
Run Away With Me
J. L. Simmonds
Shelter Me
Alex McAulay
Homecoming
Cynthia Voigt
Can't Get There From Here
Todd Strasser
The You I've Never Known
Ellen Hopkins
If Only
Richard Paul Evans
Life Before
Michele Bacon
Gather
Kenneth M. Cadow
Sun Don't Shine
Crissa-Jean Chappell
The Box-car Children
Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Art of Dumpster Diving
Jennifer Anne Moses
The Second Trial
Rosemarie Boll
