Books like 'Road Home'
Readers who enjoyed Road Home by Rex Ogle also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical lgbtq family survival coming-of-age realistic high-school social-commentary poverty bullying
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The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe extraordinary story of Stefania Podgorska, a Polish teenager who chose bravery and humanity by hiding thirteen Jews in her attic during WWII -- from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon Cameron.One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make..Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship high-school realistic survival 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco]()
The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBook Description Publication Date: 2011 When young Trisha finds out her class at the new school is known as "The Junkyard," she is devastated. She moved from her old town so she wouldn't be in a special class anymore! But then she meets her teacher, the quirky and invincible Mrs. Peterson, and her classmates, an oddly brilliant group of students each with his or her own unique talent... -
![Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson]()
Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI couldn't play on the same playground as the white kids.I couldn't go to their schools.I couldn't drink from their water fountains.There were so many things I couldn't do. In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, thousands of African American children volunteered to march for their civil rights after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak...Categorized as:
social-commentary family realistic friendship historical-fiction children-books historical fiction -
![Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde]()
Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDuring WWII, a teenage boy finds his voice, the courage of his convictions, and friends for life in an emotional and uplifting novel by the New York Times and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author.1941. Steven Katz is the son of prosperous landowners in rural California. Although his parents don’t approve, he’s found true friends in Nick, Suki, and Ollie, sons of field workers... -
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![The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels]()
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSmall-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it’s where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he’s chosen to return to die.At eighteen, Brian, like so many other promising young gay men, arrived in New York City without much more than a love for the freedom and release from his past that it promised... -
![Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles]()
Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwo boys—one black, one white—are best friends in the segregated 1960s South in this picture book about friends sticking together through thick and thin.John Henry swims better than anyone I know. He crawls like a catfish, blows bubbles like a swamp monster, but he doesn’t swim in the town pool with me. He’s not allowed. Joe and John Henry are a lot alike... -
![Boy Like Me by Simon James Green]()
Boy Like Me by Simon James Green
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the margins of a book's pages, sparks fly as a teenage romance begins. But in this time and place, sparks like these can only ignite trouble. It's 1994 and thanks to Section 28, there can be no mention of gay relationships in UK schools...Categorized as:
lgbtq realistic high-school coming-of-age family romance young-adult historical-fiction -
![We Are Not Free by Traci Chee]()
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II. Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship high-school lgbtq realistic social-commentary survival -
![Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black]()
Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr. and Alice Walker As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know... -
![Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian]()
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship high-school lgbtq realistic social-commentary -
![The Rent Collector by Camron Wright]()
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsSurvival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working... -
![Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton]()
Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in "boyish" topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider... -
![The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi]()
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe new kid in school needs a new name! Or does she?Being the new kid in school is hard enough, but what about when nobody can pronounce your name? Having just moved from Korea, Unhei is anxious that American kids will like her. So instead of introducing herself on the first day of school, she tells the class that she will choose a name by the following week...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship realistic social-commentary action-adventure book -
![Key Player by Kelly Yang]()
Key Player by Kelly Yang
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMia Tang is going for the goal in the fourth Front Desk novel by New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang! The Women’s World Cup coming to Southern California, everyone is soccer-crazy -- especially Mia Tang! The U.S. is playing China in the finals, and Mia feels like her two identities are finally coming together. Less exciting, though? The fact that her P.E...Categorized as:
realistic friendship family social-commentary lgbtq bullying middle-grade historical-fiction -
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![New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer]()
New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsElla Mae is used to wearing her cousin's hand-me-down shoes—but when her latest pair is already too tight, she's thrilled at the chance to get new shoes.But at the shoe store, Ella Mae and her mother have to wait until there are no white customers to serve first...Categorized as:
social-commentary realistic friendship family historical-fiction historical children-books fiction -
![Swansea Summer by Catrin Collier]()
Swansea Summer by Catrin Collier
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNewly promoted DI Matt Pryor is disappointed when his first case seems to be a simple death from natural causes - that is, until the post-mortem shows something quite unexpected ... The elderly man who died on a Cardiff train was murdered - poisoned - by one of the other passengers... -
![Be Still the Water by Karen Emilson]()
Be Still the Water by Karen Emilson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFinalist 2019 Canadian Book Club AwardsShortlisted for the 2017 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction2017 IPPY Silver Medal WinnerSet in 1906 along the unspoiled shores of Lake Manitoba, Be Still the Water brings us into the fold of the Gudmundsson Family—immigrants determined to begin life anew in the Icelandic farming and fishing community of Siglunes...Categorized as:
family survival coming-of-age friendship fiction historical-fiction historical literary-fiction -
![When Daylight Comes by Lyn Andrews]()
When Daylight Comes by Lyn Andrews
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJessica Brennan's world falls apart when her father is lost at sea. The death of her mother soon after is almost too much to bear. Then Jess learns that the family business is in ruins, and there are further blows to come.Suddenly a young woman who has known only comfort and security finds herself alone and friendless... -
![After Francesco by Brian Malloy]()
After Francesco by Brian Malloy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAcclaimed author Brian Malloy brings insight, humor, and the authenticity of his own experiences as a member of the AIDS generation to this universal story of love and loss set in New York City and Minneapolis at the peak of the AIDS crisis...Categorized as:
lgbtq realistic social-commentary family friendship coming-of-age fiction historical-fiction -
![Fiona's Lace by Patricia Polacco]()
Fiona's Lace by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn Irish family stays together with the help of Fiona’s talent for making one-of-a-kind lace in this heartwarming immigration story from the New York Times bestselling creator of The Keeping Quilt.Many years ago, times were hard in all of Ireland, so when passage to America becomes available, Fiona and her family travel to Chicago...Categorized as:
family survival poverty realistic historical-fiction children-books historical fiction -
![Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay]()
Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, masculinity, and their fraught father-son relationships.Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California...Categorized as:
family realistic social-commentary coming-of-age historical-fiction young-adult fiction audiobook -
![When You Call My Name by Tucker Shaw]()
When You Call My Name by Tucker Shaw
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTucker Shaw’s When You Call My Name is a heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York City in 1990 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Named "this summer's most powerful LGBTQ+ novel" by GAY TIMES, this book is perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H. K. Choi.Film fanatic Adam is seventeen and being asked out on his first date—and the guy is cute...Categorized as:
lgbtq coming-of-age realistic friendship romance young-adult historical-fiction historical -
![Gordo by Jaime Cortez]()
Gordo by Jaime Cortez
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe first ever collection of short stories by Jaime Cortez, Gordo is set in a migrant workers camp near Watsonville, California in the 1970s. A young, probably gay, boy named Gordo puts on a wrestler's mask and throws fists with a boy in the neighborhood, fighting his own tears as he tries to grow into the idea of manhood so imposed on him by his father... -
![How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani]()
How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNew historical fiction from a Newbery Honor-winning author about how middle schooler Ariel Goldberg's life changes when her big sister elopes following the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, and she's forced to grapple with both her family's prejudice and the antisemitism she experiences, as she defines her own beliefs... -
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![The Peach Rebellion by Wendelin Van Draanen]()
The Peach Rebellion by Wendelin Van Draanen
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA historical tale of friendship, family, and the power of sisterhood to help heal the wounds of the past and step boldly into the future of post-WWII America.Ginny Rose and Peggy were best friends at seven, picking peaches on hot summer days. Peggy’s family owned the farm, and Ginny Rose’s were pickers, escaping the Oklahoma dust storms...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship poverty realistic romance historical-fiction young-adult -
![Blood Sisters by Barbara Keating, Stephanie Keating]()
Blood Sisters by Barbara Keating, Stephanie Keating
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKenya 1957. During their childhood years in the Kenya Highlands three girls from vastly different backgrounds become blood sisters, promising that nothing will ever destroy the bond between them. But the legacy of the Mau Mau rebellion, and the tensions and upheavals of newly independent Kenya, tear their childhood dreams apart... -
![That Book Woman by Heather Henson]()
That Book Woman by Heather Henson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCal is not the readin' type. Living way high up in the Appalachian Mountains, he'd rather help Pap plow or go out after wandering sheep than try some book learning. Nope. Cal does not want to sit stoney-still reading some chicken scratch. But that Book Woman keeps coming just the same. She comes in the rain. She comes in the snow... -
![Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan]()
Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA shocking human rights tragedy brought to light in a story of heartbreak and triumph.Thirteen-year-old Habo has always been different— light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. Not the good brown skin his family has and not the white skin of tourists. Habo is strange and alone. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship poverty realistic survival action-adventure -
![Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson]()
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA middle-grade novel about two enslaved children’s escape from a plantation and the many ways they find freedom.Under the cover of night, twelve-year-old Homer flees Southerland Plantation with his little sister Ada, unwillingly leaving their beloved mother behind. Much as he adores her and fears for her life, Homer knows there’s no turning back, not with the overseer on their trail...Categorized as:
family survival friendship realistic social-commentary historical-fiction middle-grade fiction -
![The Uprising: Three Young Women Caught in the Fire That Changed America by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Suzanne Toren]()
The Uprising: Three Young Women Caught in the Fire That Changed America by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Suzanne Toren
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsAround her the workers were screaming out prayers and curses.... She herself was sobbing tearlessly....Her only prayer was still, "I don't want to die." Oh, please, God, don't let me die, she thought. I've never even had a chance to live.Bella, newly arrived in New York from Italy, gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory... -
![Outbound Train by Renea Winchester]()
Outbound Train by Renea Winchester
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn 1976, memories from a night near the railroad tracks sixteen years earlier haunt Barbara Parker. She wrestles with past demons every night, then wakes to the train’s five-thirty whistle. Exhausted and dreading the day, she keeps her hands busy working in Bryson City’s textile plant, known as the “blue jean plant,” all the while worrying about her teenage daughter, Carole Anne... -
![Little Gold by Allie Rogers]()
Little Gold by Allie Rogers
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe heat is oppressive and storms are brewing in Brighton in the summer of 1982. Little Gold, a boyish girl on the brink of adolescence, is struggling with the reality of her broken family and a home descending into chaos. Her only refuge is the tree at the end of her garden. Into her fractured life steps Peggy Baxter... -
![Cairo Circles by Doma Mahmoud]()
Cairo Circles by Doma Mahmoud
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWriting instructor at American University in Cairo and NYU MFA graduate Doma Mahmoud's THE DISBELIEVERS, set between Cairo and New York, exploring the stories of three families from different social classes, whose lives are closely intertwined throughout, meditating on the boundaries of free will and questions about class, hedonism, faith, and violence, to Olivia Taylor Smith at Unnamed Press... -
![House Without Walls by Ching Yeung Russell]()
House Without Walls by Ching Yeung Russell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor most people, home is a place with four walls. It's a place to eat, sleep, rest, and live. For a refugee, the concept of home is ever-changing, ever-moving, ever-wavering. And often, it doesn't have any walls at all.Eleven-year-old Lam escapes from Vietnam with Dee Dee during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus in 1979, when people from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fled their homelands for safety...Categorized as:
realistic friendship family survival middle-grade historical-fiction fiction historical -
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![In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo]()
In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA novel in verse about a young Taiwanese immigrant to America who is confronted by the stark difference between dreams and reality.Anna can’t wait to move to the beautiful country—the Chinese name for America. Although she’s only ever known life in Taiwan, she can’t help but brag about the move to her family and friends.But the beautiful country isn’t anything like Anna pictured...Categorized as:
realistic coming-of-age bullying family social-commentary middle-grade historical-fiction fiction -
![Like Vanessa by Tami Charles]()
Like Vanessa by Tami Charles
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this semi-autobiographical debut novel set in 1983, Vanessa Martin's real-life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark, New Jersey is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with an incarcerated mother she barely remembers, a grandfather dealing with addiction and her own battle with self-confidence... -
![The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine]()
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe last thing Harry "Dit" Sims expects when Emma Walker comes to town is to become friends. Proper -talking, brainy Emma doesn't play baseball or fish too well, but she sure makes Dit think, especially about the differences between black and white. But soon Dit is thinking about a whole lot more when the town barber, who is black, is put on trial for a terrible crime... -
![Elephant Run by Roland Smith]()
Elephant Run by Roland Smith
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1941, bombs drop from the night skies of London, demolishing the apartment Nick Freestone lives in with his mother. Deciding the situation in England is too unstable, Nick's mother sends him to live with his father in Burma, hoping he will be safer living on the family's teak plantation. But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote Burmese elephant village...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship high-school realistic survival 20th-century action-adventure -
![Jefferson's Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley]()
Jefferson's Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe untold story of Thomas Jefferson's slave childrenBeverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston are Thomas Jefferson's children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, and while they do get special treatment - better work, better shoes, even violin lessons - they are still slaves, and are never to mention who their father is...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship high-school realistic social-commentary audiobook black-mc -
![Laura's Luck by Marilyn Sachs]()
Laura's Luck by Marilyn Sachs
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLaura knows she won't be happy at camp...but could she be wrong? In the second of three books about a poor family living in the Bronx in the 1940s, Laura, the older sister, has to cope with the pleasures and pains of going off to camp... -
![The Sun Rose in Paris: Portraits in Blue - Book One by Penny Fields-Schneider]()
The Sun Rose in Paris: Portraits in Blue - Book One by Penny Fields-Schneider
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen a chance foray into the midst of the 1930s Parisian art world ignites passions Jack did not know existed, how can he possibly go home? Jack has been praised all his life for his extraordinary artistic talent and is rarely seen without his sketchpad... -
![Revolution by Deborah Wiles]()
Revolution by Deborah Wiles
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIt's 1964, and Sunny's town is being invaded. Or at least that's what the adults of Greenwood, Mississippi, are saying. All Sunny knows is that people from up north are coming to help people register to vote. They're calling it Freedom Summer. Meanwhile, Sunny can't help but feel like her house is being invaded, too...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship high-school realistic social-commentary 20th-century -
![The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed]()
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAshley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer. Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship high-school lgbtq realistic social-commentary -
![Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig]()
Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNamed a Best Book of the Year by the Seattle Times and Kirkus Review The final novel from a great American storyteller.Donal Cameron is being raised by his grandmother, the cook at the legendary Double W ranch in Ivan Doig's beloved Two Medicine Country of the Montana Rockies, a landscape that gives full rein to an eleven-year-old's imagination...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family friendship realistic survival action-adventure audiobook bildungsroman -
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![Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley]()
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily...Categorized as:
bullying coming-of-age family friendship high-school lgbtq realistic social-commentary -
![The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes]()
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThis Newbery Honor classic, illustrated by a Caldecott Medalist, is a beautifully written tribute to the power of kindness, acceptance, and standing up for what's right. Wanda Petronski is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. She claims she has one hundred dresses at home, but everyone knows she doesn’t... -
![Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo, Christina Moore]()
Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo, Christina Moore
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA fictionalized account of the Pakistani child who escaped from bondage in a carpet factory and went on to help liberate other children like him before being gunned down at the age of thirteen...Categorized as:
coming-of-age friendship poverty realistic social-commentary survival abuse action-adventure -
![Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale]()
Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of A PLACE CALLED WINTER comes a new novel of boyhood, coming of age, and the confusions of desire and reality. For all readers of Ian McEwan's ATONEMENT or L P Hartley's THE GO-BETWEEN.1970s Western-Super-Mare and ten-year-old oddball Eustace, an only child, has life transformed by his mother's quixotic decision to sign him up for cello lessons... -
![Serafina's Promise by Ann E. Burg]()
Serafina's Promise by Ann E. Burg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA luminous novel in verse from the author of the Jefferson Cup award winner ALL THE BROKEN PIECES.Serafina hasa secret dream. She wants to go to schooland become a doctorwith her best friend, Julie Marie. But in their rural villageoutside Port-au-Prince, Haiti,many obstaclesstand in Serafina’s way--little money,never-ending chores,and Manman’s worries... -
![Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan]()
Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is 1846 and Ireland is starving.The potatoes are black, people are dying and in the midst of it all Nell must do everything she can to keep her family together, and everyone she loves alive. Even if it means giving up her every want, dream and desire...Categorized as:
family coming-of-age high-school survival friendship romance historical-fiction young-adult
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