From Publishers Weekly
Shortlisted for England's Carnegie Medal for children's fiction, this stark and steely novel has lots of taut action but no silver lining. Three "rubbish kids," throwaways in a grimy and lawless London of the future, stumble on a kidnapped baby whose ransom is set at 17 million pounds. Expecting they can get a reward for returning baby Sylvie to her rich parents, Jane, Sham and Fly Pie cart the baby from violent trash heap to teeming slum, thinking of a plan to save both the baby and themselves from a pitiful life on the run. Burgess's alarmingly drawn future England of orphans, rags, desperation and gangs is compelling, but one in which Oliver Twist and even Fagan would fear to tread. The undercurrent of commentary on the dubious future of England may be lost on all but the most sophisticated of American YA readers. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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.
