Its 1990. Apartheid is crumbling. Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison. And Spud Miltonthirteen-year-old, prepubescent choirboy extraordinaireis about to start his first year at an elite boys-only boarding school in South Africa. Cursed with embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, a senile granny named Wombat, and a wild obsession for Julia Roberts, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home.
Armed with only his wits and his diary, Spud takes readers of all ages on a rowdy boarding school romp full of illegal midnight swims, raging hormones, and catastrophic holidays that will leave the entire family in total hysterics and thirsty for more.
"In many ways Spud appears to be a literary cousin of Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicholson, whose diaries also detail, in colorful slang, life with whacked-out relatives, obsession with emergent sexuality and school-related capers." - Publishers Weekly, ages 12+
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Spud was published in South Africa in 2005 and became the fastest-selling novel by a South African in South African history, spending two years at the top of the bestseller list. A sequel to Spud, Spud: The Madness Continues is already available in South Africa and is planned for release in the USA in 2008.

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