Hunger

Hunger is a novel for young readers by Michael Grant. It takes place three months after the disappearance of every adult from the town, inside the enclosed area the children who are left call the FAYZ.

The survivors have organised themselves as well as they can, but the shops are empty and the gardens are producing nothing like enough. The older children run what passes for a government, and their authority is being tested by hunger and by the fact that some of the youngest are changing: they can do things other people cannot, and they have stopped hiding it. Grant divides the town between those with powers and those without, then lets the division do its work. Meanwhile, out in the hills, an old creature that has been buried there for a very long time begins reaching out to particular teenagers, offering them something and asking for something in return. The book is about what a group of children do when the rules are gone and there is not enough of anything.

The story keeps its attention on the practical problem of food and the political problem of a town with no adults in it, and the children's answers to both are already turning violent.