The Baby and Fly Pie

by Melvin Burgess

After finding a kidnapped baby who is worth millions, three homeless teens are faced with a serious predicament and must decide what to do about the situation, in a powerful story of morals versus survival.

Genres: Young Adult

184 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Melvin Burgess is a British author of children's fiction. His first book, The Cry of the Wolf, was published in 1990. He gained a certain amount of notoriety in 1996 with the publication of Junk, which was published in the shadow of the film of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, and dealt with the trendy and controversial idea of heroin-addicted teenagers. Junk soon became, at least in Britain, one of the best-known children's books of the decade.

Burgess again courted predictable controversy in 2003, with the publication of Doing It, which dealt with underage sex. America created a show based on the book, Life As We Know It. In his other books, such as Bloodtide and The Ghost Behind the Wall, Burgess has dealt with less realist and sometimes fantastic themes. In 2001 Burgess wrote the novelisation of the film Billy Elliot, based on Lee Hall's screenplay. Polyphony is typical for his most famous novels.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/melvin...

Reviews

[Tiff · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, please take a moment to appreciate the cover of this YA novel. Don't you just love it? Clean, elegant with that shiny electric blue bursting out from it. Gorgeous!

Now don't put off by the title. This is not a cannibalistic tale of a pie made of babies and flies.

Fly Pie is an orphan, working for Mother Shelley by sorting rubbish in a London of the future. These kids look for food, metal, even precious things like jewellery that ALWAYS get handed in to Mother Shelley.

One day, Fly Pie finds something he didn't expect. A baby. A baby worth 17 million pounds! Can Fly Pie and his friends keep the baby safe and claim the reward before the Mothers find out?

The Baby and Fly Pie is the first Melvin Burgess novel I have read. While the story engaged me, I didn't feel a connection to the characters and felt let down by the ending. See what you think.

[Claude's Bookzone · Rating 2 out of 5]

CW: A really shocking scene where a baby is thrown down on the ground.

[Woff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been meaning to reread this for actually more than 20 years. It clearly struck quite the chord with my 9ish year old self. Everyone should have older siblings so they can read things like this when they are 9ish!

[Bet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense. I don't think I'll forget about this one for a while...

[Nux · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone wrote, intense is quite applicable to this story.
Not a “feel good” story.
Maybe unfairly, I took away a star because of the almost definitive ending that made me cry some more (disclaimer, I read this while my 4.5 months old slept peacefully next to me so I kept on projecting the story on to my kids). Definitely a story to keep so my kids could read it when they’re a bit older!

[Rachael Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt one of the books and authors that had one of the biggest influences on my writing career. :D

[Cath · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story takes place in a futuristic London, where the difference between rich and poor is vast. Fly, Sham and Jane, all who survive by fossicking through mountains of garbage, find a baby in a commercial dumping site. The baby is with a man who has kidnapped her, hoping for a handsome reward for her return. However, things have not gone well, and the man is dying from wounds sustained during the kidnapping. When the man dies, the teenagers take over the care of the baby, hoping for a similar reward. Caring for the baby and terrified of being caught, the teenagers struggle with their overwhelming desire to escape their impoverished lives and begin again. The baby is their way out. Governed by their own sometimes misplaced moral codes, they grapple with the choice of a course of action which will give them freedom, but also restore the baby to her parents unscathed.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book, an exiting adventure, but sad at the end when the girl dies, but is definitely worth reading!

[Karla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nihilistic.

[Papillon]

7

[Georgie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Baby and Fly Pie is set in a future/dystopian London where hundreds of poor people, especially kids, live on rubbish dumps on the outskirts of the city, and on the streets. Davey, also known as Fly Pie, is a 'rubbish kid', working for 'Mother Shelly' on a rubbish tip. Every day, kids like him, working for a 'Mother' pick through the rubbish to find things the Mothers can sell on. It's tough, but better than life on the streets of the city, and at least they are safe from the dreaded Squads who make kids like them disappear - permanently. Fly Pie has an older sister, Jane, and a best friend, Sham. When Sham and Fly Pie discover a dying man hidden on the tip - a man with a gun and a kidnapped baby worth £17 million, they finally have a chance to escape life as rubbish kids. But only if they can escape Mother Shelly and her enforcers, the rival gangs who run criminal activity in London, the Squads and the police. They must decide what the best thing to do is, but how can they when no one can be trusted?

Melvin Burgess writes unflinchingly tough stories about real kids with very real problems, and he doesn't talk down to his readers or try to hide the darker, harsher side of life. But despite the grimness of this story, there's moments of hope and life and love. The three main characters are all flawed - Fly Pie is naive, as is Jane, and Sham can be dishonest. These flaws make them and the story all the more interesting.

5 stars.