Trash

by Andy Mulligan

                                                                      A Black-Eyed Susan nominated novel for students in grades 6 - 9

         This is a fictional thriller for any age, but especially for those who can connect with adolescent and teen age boys.   The main characters

are three young men living out their lives in squalor in a dumpsite in a developing country.  For their foreseeable future it does not seem

they will have anything more than a life of rumaging through rubble and trash for food and a meek existence. 

Then, they have a chance to change all that---if only they can follow a trail of mystery, intrigue, murder, abuse, and cruelty that surrounds them.   

Written with extreme sensitivity to people in third world cultures, you will not be able to put down this novel until you learn the fate of the three boys.

          Notes:

          --Published in 2010 as a David Fickling book by Random House Children's Books

          --159 pages + notes, with a few sketches and info on clues

          --Written in a unique first person style from the perspective of several of the main characters

          --Movie rights to the book have already been purchased 

The author, Andy Mulligan, talks here about why he wrote the book  -- from his website at:   http://www.andymulligan.co.uk/