Melvin Burgess's first novel,The Cry of the Wolf is without a doubt my most favorite book I have ever read! It is a compelling story about the greediness of a deranged man, also known as the hunter. But if I left you with that you would not have truely understood this novel. The Cry of the Wolf is also about the strugle that last wolf in England is put throught to survive. Even if you do not like wolfs this book is still one that should be on every young readers shelf. Although there is some vilonce and crude nature, so I reccomend that children should be ten at the youngest when they read this book. ...

WoW! This has been one of my favorite books since I got it a few years ago. I've read it at least 10 times and lent it to most of my friends. It's billed as a children's book, but it's fairly violent, sometimes chillingly so. I would wait to give it to kids until they're 12 or so. Evil is personified as the Hunter, who is never given a name, only his Occupation to identify him. Grey Cub, on the other hand, is a wolf who seems at times almost human. Between the Hunter and his prey stands Ben Tilley, who loves the wolves, and doesn't realize that he's opening the door to their extinction when he tells a stranger that they exist.........

The Cry of the Wolf is my all time favourite book, I loved it! I thought it was really awesome, and have read it at least eight times! I totally recommend it, especially if you like wolves! It's really sad in some parts, but I think the ending was good. :)

"This is about a young girl named Issy who tries to unravel the truth to who she really she is."Isabel her real name,was brought out of the North when she was about 2 years old with nothing,but her name and a dream of fire. Ten years later,a strang woman named Iohan came and took her where she would soon find out who she is."If you like mysteries and adventures this is the book for you."Melvin Burgess,the author has also written The Cry of the Wolf,which was a runner-up for England's perstigious Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in 1991.He makes the settings of the story seem so real as if they were real places from the seventeenth-century. "If you like fictional mysteries this is a great book for you to read.If you want to read this awsome book try searching at your local public or school library."

This book is perfect for those of all ages. It can be used as a bedtime story or as an insight on a report. It has a lot of factual information without giving witches a bad name. Most people have misconceptions as to what life was like so many years back. This book portrays the life of a peasant and the hardships associated with being one. Burning Issy puts you in the eyes of a little girl and tells how she survived one of the biggest events of her time. The Witch Trials.

At first TenTons ,Davis,and Jami are on a big boat and find a chest full of copper so they try to move it to get some copper but as soon as they move it it falls off the edge of the boat. A few days latter they were playing in the water and they found it, but they can't take it out of the mud and water by ther selfs then they found some donkeys loose in a farmer's feild.The next day they try to take the donkeys to try to pull it out. TenTons is so happy that he is jumping all over the place then Davis ties tens to the copper that they almost had out of the water but then it falls and Tens drowned a few days later they get the copper . They bring it to a dealer and get alot of money then they throw half in the water for Tens and the other half for a boat ride.

We read this to our 7 year old and she loved it. She told me that it's a great adventure book and it teaches you that outward appearances are not important. That it's what is inside that counts.

I have a feeling I would've enjoyed this book far more if I hadn't already known about who was going to die and who was going to shag who. It spoiled a lot of the surprise and suspense, which really blew.

Other than that, the book was pretty well done, but it didn't have the gluing and amazing effect that Smack had. Maybe it was because Smack didn't have an omnipotent narrator point of view? The nonpersonal chapters seemed to cover a lot more story than the characterized ones did. It also would have been cool to see things through Conor's eyes near the end.

If you're into the myth/fantasy/kinda horror thing, you might want to check it out at the library, but I wouldn't buy it for myself. Oh yeah -- don't let anybody else read the amazon description of this book anymore!

I do not want to ruin the story for all the people who had not read this book yet, so I'll be really brief.

This book is AWESOME.

Go and buy this masterpiece right now.

I have read this book time and time again, and still never grow tired of it. The characters in this novel become real and it's so easy to become attached to them, which makes the ending kind of hard to deal with, in some respects. Everything about this book is honest and straight forward. Somethings were meant to chage, while others weren't, and sometimes life takes the course you least expect, for better or for worse. Melvin Burgess is genius and I hope to read more of his books. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a an incredible and gripping read.

"Smack" is a brutally honest introspective into street life and the lifestyle that those living it embrace. The book chronicles Gemma and Tar, a couple of English teens that decide flee their dysfunctional homelives for a life of freedom and excitement. The two aimless teenagers, move to Bristol where they take up residence in a squat (abandoned house where homeless people live)with other runaways of a similar background. Tar and Gemma are well off for a time, they party, go to concerts, and live the freedom drenched life they've craved for years. There is always a little drug use. A little weed here, some alchohal there,and that's where it stops. That is untill the night they meet Rob and Lily. The couple moves in with Lily and Rob where heroin is intrduced to them. Over time the four friends go from casual users to addicted junkies. Among the most memorable scenes is the grim instance when Rob and Tar enter another squat to collect on some heroin and come across the two inhabitants. They are both lifeless next to eacthother on the floor blueish in color with needles dangling from their arms. However the real shock is delivered when Rob and Tar go through the place untill they find the smack, and Rob makes the comment "It's probably dead pure", nodding to his two dead friends as he and Tar laugh. The grip of the life draining drug tightens and tightens as the story progresses. Gemma and Lily work on the street corners for whatever employer rolls up willing to give money to sustain their junkie lifestyle. Tar and Rob shoplift, deal, and sell. The friends attempt to kick the drug again and again with no success. "Smack" tells of desperate measures that are taken by ignorant teens in their attempt to escape. They want to escape from restriction, abuse, and neglect. In their excitement they stumble upon something they believe to be helpful in this goal. They are painfully mistaken as their attempt to escape results in imprisonment unlike any they have ever expierienced.

Smack struck me by surprise. I never thought this book was going to be so excellent. When I first started to read this book, I felt I was bored, but it wasnt even like that. Tar and Gemma were two 14 year old runaways, with nothing to do and no one to help. They squatted a home and began to start their own lives, with the help of some very nice people who cared a lot about them. Then Lily and Rob came along. When they first inroduced these characters, I thought they were in their late 20's, when in fact they were only sixteen. I also thought Lily was a non-junkie when she came to that party, like she was a nature girl. She was everything but that, it all unfolded later in the book. Towards the end, the climax was the highest. With Lily having a baby on smack, to Skolly driving by and seeing someone carried out of Tar and Gems house on a strecher, to Gems telling on everyone and going back home. Things werent at all what I expected, and thats what kept my intrests so high in the book. I hate it when I can determine how a book is going to end. I thought Tar would never get another girlfriend, and I never thought Gemma would go back home, it sounded like she hated it so much but she really had no choice. The part that shocked me the most would be the chapter when Tar's dad is talking. Tar even talked to him...Woah! He is so sensitive, after tar ran away his life fell apart(lost his wife and job to booze) and there was nothing left for him. He just wants Tar as a son so he can at least have something there. He knows his past life was horrible and he made it that way but he is willing to give it time. Tar cant quite forgive him but he took a big step by talking to him. I loved this book and the whole plot of it. The climax was great and it was also very informative. Smack informs others of how life with herion is, and its not good. It changes everthing about you and your whole lifestyle. This was an excellent book.

This book tells you what it's about right in the title; it's about smack, heroin, junk, whatever you want to call it. Smack is about two fourteen-year-olds living in squats in England in the 1980s. One of them, Tar, has an alcoholic mom and gets beat up by his dad so he runs away to live in a squat. His girlfriend, Gemma, hates her parents' restrictions, so she runs away to live with him. In Bristol, they meet two other teenagers, who introduce them to the drug that consumes their lives, heroin. Over the next four years, they are faced with addiction, prostitution, and numerous other things they didn't count on as they fall into and out of love with each other and heroin. They struggle with getting out of the deep hole of addiction, facing their parents, and regaining the lives they've created but have lost control of; all while learning many lessons about life, love, and themselves.
Burgess' style of writing each chapter from the view of a different character really pulls you into every side of the story, so that you feel like you are there. You come to know the characters inside and out, love them; you feel their pain and their joy. You worry for them and cheer for them throughout the whole book. But in addition to knowing the characters, you end up knowing the drug, heroin. This book reinforces everything you've ever been taught about drugs in a way more real than any health class.
I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants some drama, excitement, and emotion in a book. Teens especially will enjoy this book because they can relate to the feelings and the mindsets of the characters and what they are experiencing in this modern setting.

When I bought this book I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. It was a quick and easy read but it was very enjoyable. The whole way through the book you are waitng to find out what the three kids are going to do next. I found the end a bit strange and you think "Why did that happen?" and in some parts you end up hating the characters, but it was extremely good on the whole.

I've owned this book for over 6 years before I read it. I'm 20 now, and found the book in my old bedroom. I decided to read it cause I had nothing else, and finished it in the same night. It was amazingly depressing and tragic. I hated most the characters through-out the book. For being uncaring, decefitful, or too caring and stupid. But it was an engaging book. Even for my age. I almost think it might be too violent and depressing for young adults though. But, if you can handle that sort of thing, I'd recommend it. It's a fast and easy read too.

When I first picked up the book it was because my school librarian said I should read it. I thought it would be a typical teenage book, but after the first few pages I just couldn't put it down. This is a great book, with an unpredictable ending (at least I couldn't predict it and I'm quite good at predicting endings). I can guarantee that you won't be disappointed with this book.

This was a great book! I really enjoyed reading it and I could hardly put it down. I totally recommend it! It had a very unpredictable ending and a gripping story line.

A slow start to what then became one of the most fantastic books I have ever read. The characters become your friends and you emphasise with their choices and actions. This is the first book I have ever read that has enabled me to see a reason why people use herion. The book takes you through the good and the bad times.

I for one after reading the book would never try heroin. I was shown how this drug could take away dignity, dreams and even lifes.

A brilliant book!!!

We have read `Junk` in our English lessons. After having read an extract from this book I thought it was a bad book. It is only about running away, taking drugs, dying or coming back home at the last moment. But with every page I read it got better and better. Particulary I like the love story of Gemma and Tar. Although she doesn't love him the friendship between them has something interesting and special. It is sad when Gemma only thinks about herself and forgets Tar, but it is so beautiful if they are together, so that it makes you forget their problems a little bit.
Another good thing is that the book is written in a special way. Each chapter is written from another point of view. So one story is told from different points of view.

So I only can say: Read this book. You won't regret it.

Junk is one of the best books I've ever read.. well, actually it's THE best book I've ever read. I started off disliking Melvin Burgess's style of writing, but now I see it as it is, nothing but genious. The way each chapter is written from another character's point of view is amazing, and the characters are painted fantastically. I found myself laughing out loud, or standing up and screaming at the inanimate book when things went wrong! I completely fell in love with Tar, and I felt as if Gemma was sitting next to me and reading these words to me... plus I have a new found love of dandelions!! If you don't have time to read this book, get time, because it may do to you what it did to me.. it gave me an entirely different outlook on life.. I wouldn't say it put me off drugs at all, but it certainly was honest, rather than just telling me "All drugs are bad. Never do drugs." If you have any interest in anything at all, then read this book!! JUNK ROX!!

This book of Billy Elliot is the complete script of the movie. The script itself is fantastic but this book is very thin: the book has more or less 120 pages so as you may imagine you can read it all on one day...

Curiously, this version of Billy Elliot (a novelization written by Melvin Burgess) was obviously written to appeal to young adult readers of about jr. high/high school age, who, strangely enough, would not likely be old enough to go see or even really interested in a film such as Billy Elliot in the first place. This novelization unfortunately washes away the directness and vividness so apparent in the written screenplay. The descriptions interspersed within the dialogue take much of the original starkness of the play and movie away, leaving Billy to seem rather flat emotionally. The strife and hardship of Billy's struggle to attain his goals in light of his difficult family situation is largely defused. Lee Hall's excellent screenplay is FAR superior!! Pick that up and by-pass Melvin Burgess's attempt.

It is just brilliant although it isn't very long you just have keep reading you cannot put it down it is just brilliant!