Nick Hornby has been an exciting presence on the bookshelves, and on film, for a while now. “Slam” is apparently the first novel he has aimed at the teen/young adult market – though I am inclined to think that maybe his publishers are mainly responsible for slanting the publicity in this direction.

Nick Hornby is simply one of the best story tellers around and while the story may focus on teenage lives – and a difficult yet highly topical subject matter, teenage pregnancy – the story stands on its own as a brilliant read. You will know by now that I hate to give anything away about the story in my reviews, so again, if you want some detail before committing to reading it, then the Guardian review gets it just about right.
So who will read it? So far as I am concerned it has a universal market, and I can’t honestly think of anyone of any age, 14 or over, who will fail to love it to bits. It’s funny, its contemporary, it’s challenging, and it is as realistic as anyone could reasonably expect of an adult author writing about teenagers and their world today. Having said that, it is carries a message that every teenager, and their parents, should encounter and consider. Deserves to be a runaway bestseller.