Homebird

This novel, in the tradition of Paula Fox's Monkey Island , will fascinate anyone who has ever imagined what it would be like to slip ``from the cozy, secure world of right and wrong and fridges and table manners and TV every night into the cold outside where the only success is to survive another day.'' Nicky, 13, runs away from his British boarding school after his altruistic defense of a fellow student earns him a brutal beating. Nicky's plans to return home are stymied, however, when he discovers his father is having an affair. Angry and virtually penniless, the boy hooks up with the teenaged residents of a Brixton ``squat'' and drifts into a life of crime. Authentically adolescent, Nicky's voice manages to achieve just the right balance between sarcasm and sensitivity; all that is trite and cloying is avoided--or as Nicky says ``Now, whoa there--check that major cliche attack.'' The wisecracking first-person narrative, peppered with thumbnail sketches of various characters and snatches of imagined screenplay dialogue, along with a bouncy MTV-like style of quick cutting from one scene to the next, makes this an ideal book for reluctant readers. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)