One of them was about a girl in foster care who was sitting behind the couch when her mom got murdered and at the end of the book she finds a picture album and hugs it and the book ends. I also remember a mention of her in a therapist/counselor’s office of sorts and she looks at drawings from other kids there and one of them is a guy with a gun arm killing someone. The other book is about a boy with a dad who was in prison. The book cover has a crow/raven and is yellow. It mentions the main character carving a walking stick for his grandma (?) and he has a pet/friend crow/raven. The main character’s dad gets out of prison and kills the bird and uses the water tower the kid stays in to hold his stolen items and at the end of the book he goes back to jail. And a third book about a boy also in foster care who runs away and finds out details about his parents. The book details the boy getting a pencil shoved up his nose at the beginning too.
Lost Classics of Teen Lit: Name That Book! 