Junk = Heroin = Bliss = Despair = A Love Affair You'll Never Forget. Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn't want to be tied down - not to anyone or anything. Gemma wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, somehow, finally, you have to come down.

About the Author

Melvin Burgess is regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature. In 1997 his controversial bestseller Junk won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Four of his novels have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal: The Cry of the Wolf, An Angel for May, The Baby and Fly Pie and The Ghost Behind the Wall. Melvin lives in Manchester with his two children.

Reviews

Occasionally a 'teenage novel' comes along which makes one reconsider the whole genre and its potential. Such a book is Melvin Burgess's Junk -- Robert Dunbar Children's Books in Ireland The most talked-about children's book for years Mail on Sunday Brilliantly and sensitively written, it encompasses the raw, savage and ecstatic world of the adolescent mind... a superbly crafted and important book TES Beautifully written The Times