The Last Book in the Universe
Rodman Philbrick
 The story is set in a post-disaster, dystopic future city, called the Urb, which has been disturbed by an earthquake known as "The Big Shake". The Urb is plagued by poverty, thieves, gang warfare, and the use of mindprobes (such as trendies, and shooters), which are analogous to hard drugs and which enable users to temporarily escape their harsh lives through images like movies being played in their heads. Genetically improved people, called "proovs," live across the "Forbidden Zone," a minefield separating the Urb from a city called Eden, with a beautiful society, food and water. Spaz is a 14-year-old boy who can't use mindprobes because of his epilepsy and whose adoptive family has abandoned him because they feared the symptoms of his epilepsy. Spaz runs errands for Billy Bizmo, the latch-boss (leader) of his gang, the "Bully Bangers," in a section of the Urb. On one of his errands, Spaz is sent to rob Ryter, a very little man who possesses the lost arts of literature. Spaz soon meets Little Face, a five-year-old orphan who, throughout the book, only says the word "chox," because he doesn't know how to speak, and Lanaya, a proov who charitably gives out food. At first, Spaz is very hostile towards Ryter, but Ryter understands Spaz's situation and does his best to help him, offering no resistance when Spaz arrives to steal Ryter's meager possessions . Eventually Spaz learns that Bean, his beloved stepsister , is dying of a sickness. Ryter and Little Face accompany Spaz on a journey to find Bean. The trio starts by traveling through a large, broken water pipe that leads to other latches. Along the way, they pass through latches controlled by various other bosses, having adventures along the way. One of the latches, which is ruled by the "Monkey Boys," they find that the leader Mongo the Magnificent is dying and Ryter convinces the Tek boss to take his place. At the next latch the group sees the entire latch burning and finds Lanaya being attacked. She is rescued by Spaz and Ryter and she joins them on their journey. They start traveling towards the latch where Bean lives. Eventually the story's heroes find Bean, who is dying of leukemia. Lanaya decides to take Bean to Eden, along with Spaz, Ryter, and Little Face, and soon they arrive at Lanaya's contributors', or parents', house. At this point in the novel, it is shown that Lanaya is a special proov who has been bred to eventually lead Eden, and so she has rights and privileges that other proovs do not. They take Bean to a proov hospital and she is cured of her sickness using genetic surgery. Ryter and Spaz, and Little Face enjoy the paradise of Eden, being unfamiliar with grass, a blue sky, fish in a stream, and apples, among other things. Some time later Ryter, Spaz, and Bean are thrown out of Eden because the elders who rule over Eden decide they are unacceptable, even though Bean is extremely smart, having beaten one of Lanaya's contributors in chess. The elders of Eden refuse to accept that someone from the Urb could naturally be better than a proov in any way. Little Face is secretly adopted by Lanaya's contributors. Lanaya reveals to the elders that the mindprobes, which cause so much damage to the people who use them, come from Eden, and so all the mindprobes throughout the Urb are deactivated, causing rioting and anarchy outside Eden. Bean is deposited at her home, and Ryter and Spaz are returned to theirs. Back at Spaz's home latch Ryter is blamed for the deactivation of the mindprobes and is wheeled and killed, while Spaz has an epileptic seizure. Before his death, Ryter tells Spaz that he is the last book in the universe. Billy Bizmo, the leader of Spaz's latch, tells him that he is his father and that his mother died at his birth. The story ends with Lanaya sending Spaz a message about how it's getting better in Eden and how she believes they can fix it all in time. Spaz takes on the name Ryter, continuing his work, writing the last book in the universe using a device that writes while he talks. The book was denied use in a California school because the area had been having gang problems.