Best Selling Books by Melvin Burgess

A new drug is out. Everyone is talking about it. The Hit. Take it, and you have one week to live. It''s the ultimate high. At the ultimate price .

It was a love story. Me, Gemma and junk. I thought it was going to last forever. Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn''t want to be tied down. She wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, finally, you have to come down. Melvin Burgess’ most ambitious and complex novel is a vivid depiction of a group of teenagers in the grip of addiction. Told from multiple viewpoints, Junk is a powerful, unflinching novel about heroin. Once you take a hit, you will never be the same again. ''Everyone should read Junk'' The Times

Brandon is a boaster – he says he is brilliant at lots of things. Then he is challenged to count up to ten million. So Brandon starts: one, two, three . . . and before long he is up to one thousand. Everyone around him is bewildered and annoyed: his friend Waris, his teachers and Miss Hexx, the head. But Brandon can’t stop counting. And the higher he counts, the more everyone takes an interest, when Brandon reaches 30,000 he goes viral, by the time he gets to one million, he has a manager and a stadium full of fans counting with him. And then strange, impossible things start happening. The numbers are taking over everything . . . A fun and contemporary story about rise and fall of celebrity, and ultimately staying true to yourself.

If you gotta be a dog, be a bitch. "My tail was going bananas as I rounded the corner and headed into Platt Fields park. The pavement was alive; my nose was an eye that sees into the past. I speeded up. Oh, I was in love with Terry, but to run and sniff and feel my ears catching sounds out of the air! But what do you know? Only a dog could understand what I mean." Sandra Francy is seventeen and having way too much fun. Everyone wants to stop her but the problem is, she likes it. When she accidentally gets turned into a dog she''s horrified at first, but soon she starts to wonder if being human is worth the effort. Her attempts to hang on to her humanity are bizarre and often hilarious-but her life as a dog leads her to pleasures she hardly knew existed. Award-winning author Melvin Burgess brilliantly captures the realities of teenage life and hormone imbalance.

Dino, Jonathan, and Ben have got some problems, mostly with Jackie, Deborah, and Alison. Dino''s finally convinced Jackie, the most beautiful girl in school, to go out with him. She drives him mad with lust, but she won''t go all the way and relieve Dino of his desperately unwanted virginity. Jonathan likes Deborah. She''s smart and funny and she makes him feel very sexy, but she''s kind of plump and his mates won''t let him hear the end of it. Also, a certain swelling has him convinced that he may have cancer of the penis. Ben''s problem is in a different category altogether-- he''s been seduced by Alison, the pretty young drama teacher at school. And what seems like a dream come true is actually making him miserable. Award-winning author Melvin Burgess has written a daringly honest and often hilarious account of contemporary teenage life, and the ups and downs that surround DOING IT.

This series of contemporary writing meets the requirements of the revised National Curriculum. This book tells the story of Tam, who finds himself caught in a time-warp which sends him back to World War II. There he meets the lonely May, whom he must help.

PART II Fifteen-year-old Sigurd, son of King Sigmund, is the last surviving member of the Volson clan. His father''s kingdom -- the former city of London -- is gone. And his father''s knife, a gift from Odin himself, has been shattered to dust. Now, Odin''s eye is upon him. Armed with a powerful sword forged from the remnants of his father''s knife, Sigurd will face death, fire, and torment. He must travel through Hel and back...to unite his country once again.

When fourteen-year-old Nicholas Dane''s mother dies, social services sends him to a home for boys where intimidation and violence keep order. After a number of fights and brutal punishments, Nick thinks that life can''t possibly get any worse . . . until he realizes that the home''s respected deputy head, who has been grooming him with sweets and solace, has something more frightening in mind. Acclaimed writer and truth-teller Melvin Burgess brings us, with Dickensian scope and compelling narrative drive, his most ambitious book yet.

A hunter determined to wipe out every wolf in England almost succeeds, but then finds himself the prey.

Fame, beauty, and face transplants Sara wants to be famous, and when legendary rock star Jonathon Heat offers to take her under his wing and pay for her cosmetic surgery, it''s like a dream come true. But beauty comes with a hidden price tag. Is Sara willing to pay?

The new hope of the Volson clan, Sigurd, battles a highly advanced, gold-hoarding dragon, resulting in his fall into the underworld. But hope remains as Sigurd encounters his true love, Bryony, and accepts his destiny to reunite England.

Everyone says fourteen-year-old BILLIE is nothing but trouble. A fighter. A danger to her family and friends. But her care worker sees someone different. Her classmate ROB is big, strong; he can take care of himself and his brother. But his violent stepdad sees someone to humiliate. And CHRIS is struggling at school; he just doesn''t want to be there. But his dad sees a useless no-hoper. Billie, Rob and Chris each have a story to tell. But there are two sides to every story, and the question is . . . who do you believe?

Award-winning author Melvin Burgess''s thrilling new ghost story for younger readers. David screamed and the ghostly boy opened his mouth and screamed back. But his scream wasn''t the scream of a child—it was the scream of an old, old man. "Come back, come back," screamed the ghost in his cracked old voice. "Don''t leave me. Don''t go!" Twelve-year-old David lives with his dad in a big old apartment building called Mahogany Villas. When he discovers he can climb through the vent pipes in the building and get into other apartments and play tricks on people, he simply can''t resist. His main victim is Robert Alveston, a forgetful man in his nineties who is afraid that he is losing his mind. But David''s nasty pranks soon disturb more than his elderly neighbor. One day he comes face-to-face with a ghost, at first friendly but more and more terrifying as it becomes clear that he has a particular grudge against Mr Alveston. Soon both the old man and David are in great danger. "An ultimately poignant adventure that will captivate British author Burgess'' fans." - Booklist

Bea has started to hear and see things that no one else can – creatures, voices, visions. Then strangers visit Bea and tell her she is different: she has the rare powers of a witch. They warn her she is being hunted. Her parents think she is hallucinating and needs help. All Bea wants to do is get on with her life, and to get closer to Lars, the mysterious young man she has met at the skate park. But her life is in danger, and she must break free. The question is – who can she trust? Carnegie Medal-winner Melvin Burgess returns with a powerful, thrilling fantasy for young adults about magic, myth and following your instincts.

issy doesn''t know where she came from or who she is. Night after night, she has the same nightmare: she burns in a fire and at the heart of the flames is a face she dare not look at. Fear and superstition are everywhere and these are dangerous times for issy. She must run - from the Witch-finder, from the evil hag who wants her, from those she loves and maybe even from her own true nature . . .

Someone mad was screaming at them from the upstairs window of a house next to the station. It was a girl. ''Oh, that''s April. Don''t mind her...Deaf and dumb, see.''Abandoned by his father to a life of poverty, Tony is angry with everyone, and desperately lonely. April Dean, the deaf girl, needs friends too. But their growing relationship arouses deep prejudices which threaten to engulf not only Tony and April but also the whole village. This moving and powerful love story is about two very different people, worlds apart.

Winner of the 1996 Carnegie Medal in Literature and the Guardian Prize for fiction, two of England''s most prestigious awards, Smack tells a penetrating story about heroin use, a topic that is becoming familiar in the news and one of importance to teens everywhere. The story begins with Tar, a fourteen-year-old, who runs away from home. He convinces his girlfriend, Gemma, to come with him, and it is not long before they are engulfed in a loose community of people living in abandoned buildings. Everything seems to be turning out so well: they have a roof over their heads, food to eat, and a brand-new group of friends. And when Tar and Gemma try their first hit of smack, they think life will keep on getting better. But before long, they find they''ve lost control. The search for the next hit becomes all-consuming--until a disaster forces Gemma to take matters into her own hands. Insightful, haunting, and real, Smack is the Go Ask Alice of the ''90s. It''s a book that every teenager should read--then pass along to a friend.