The Baby and Fly Pie - Hardcover

Burgess, Melvin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068980489X ISBN 13: 9780689804892

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1996

Synopsis

After finding a kidnapped baby who is worth millions, three homeless teens are faced with a serious predicament and must decide what to do about the situation, in a powerful story of morals versus survival.

About this title

About the Author

MELVIN BURGESS was born in London and brought up in Surrey and Sussex. He has had a variety of jobs before becoming a full-time writer. Before his first novel, he had short stories published and a play broadcast on Radio 4. He is now regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10?London of the future is a bleak, desperate, polluted place for Davey, known as Fly Pie, and his friend Sham, orphaned boys who spend their days scouring an enormous dump for wares to salvage. One day they discover, hiding in an old warehouse, a wounded gunman with a kidnapped baby, and they learn that a 17 million pound ransom has been demanded for the child's safe return. When the man dies, Fly Pie's sister Jane (who had recently been sold into prostitution) joins the boys in a scheme to sequester the baby until they can locate its family and then try to claim a reward. In an effort to escape capture, they flee to a squatter city outside London, set up a miserable tent in the mud, and learn the identity of the child. The baby is old enough to splash gleefully in puddles, but seems conveniently objectified and immobile much of the time, an unrealistic element in Fly Pie's first-person narrative. As the adolescents experience continuing discord and fear of treachery among themselves, the pace begins to drag, but Jane takes a leadership role and arranges a rendezvous. "Treasure is dreams and even when you know you should, you can't let dreams go" muses Fly Pie as he fantasizes about life as more than a "rubbish kid." So they prepare?with equal measures of hope and fear?for the face-to-face meeting with the baby's mother, knowing that even though they aspire to do what is right, they may well be tracked down as heartless kidnappers. The ambiguous ending is a fitting conclusion to this intriguing, dark tale.?Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 068980489X
• ISBN 13: 9780689804892
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184