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.

After hours. Underground. Trapped. With real zombies. Humble garbageman Vance Campbell doesn't care very much for comic books, superheros, or pop culture in general, but his wife does, so he has volunteered to work at the local convention to get tickets for her and their daughter. But when a freak earthquake literally shakes things up, the festive weekend takes a turn for the worse. Now, Vance finds himself trapped by a broken elevator on the mezzanine level with a motley crew of other volunteers, vendors, and celebrities. To get out they'll have to make their way around to the other elevator—and straight through a hungry horde of undead spawned by the earthquake—before the horror envelops the rest of Comicon, and his family. If you like campy apocalyptic adventures that don't sacrifice scientific plausibility for great fun, where the characters are locked in a desperate battle against unknown forces, with neither the skills nor the equipment to handle the violent task, and you like turning blood-soaked pages as fast as you can, laughing with your heart pounding all the while, you'll love Zombies Versus Comicon. Fans of realistic, plausible, funny science fiction stories will enjoy the Con Chaos series of campy but realistic pop-culture monster novels, which can be enjoyed in any order, but which may be best without spoilers when read in order. The Con Chaos books contain graphic violence, strong language, intense situations, and frequent absurd humor. Movies based on these books would likely be rated R.

When a plane mysteriously crashes, sole survivor Nicholas Dane discovers he can channel his fellow dead passengers' talents. Chased by the killers who destroyed the plane, Dane fights to stay a step ahead of death, while piecing together the puzzle of his life.

Melvin Burgess has made a powerful name for himself in the world of children's and young adult literature, emerging in the 1990s as the author of over twenty critically acclaimed novels. This collection of original essays by a team of established and new scholars introduces readers to the key debates surrounding Burgess's most challenging work, including controversial young adult novels Junk and Doing It. Covering a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives, the volume also presents exciting new readings of some of his less familiar fiction for children, and features an interview with the author.

Translated into 28 different languages and adapted for the stage and television, "Smack"--a Carnegie Medal winner--is the original cautionary tale about modern drug abuse.