The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart

 The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart 342 pages

In the dead of night, a truck arrives in Slaughterville, a small town curiously named after its windowless slaughterhouse. Seven mysterious kids with suitcases step out of the vehicle and into an abandoned home on a dead-end street, looking over their shoulders to make sure they aren't noticed. But Ravani Foster covertly witnesses their arrival from his bedroom window. Timid and lonely, Ravani is eager to learn everything he can about his new neighbors: What secrets are they hiding? And most mysterious of all... where are the adults? Yet amid this shadowy group of children, Ravani finds an unexpected friend in the warm and gutsy Virginia. But with this friendship comes secrets revealed--and danger. When Ravani learns of a threat to his new friends, he must fight to keep them safe, or lose the only person who has ever understood him.

This is a Mark Twain nominee for children.  This book has humor, danger and friendship.  A very lonely boy who is getting bullied by boys at school and has no friends, finds friends in the most unusual place and most unusual people. A very unusual ending, also.  Some of the story seems very unrealistic but other parts you can actually feel what the characters are feeling.