After all, critical thinking is essential to life. Please, leave comments! I love a HEALTHY exchange of ideas. My thanks to Tundra Books for providing a Review Copy of this book. More books for this Age Group can be found here. No Fixed Address (Support an Independent Bookstore) Middle readers (and their grown-ups) will see themselves in Felix, marvel at how thin the margin is separating them, and then hopefully have more empathy for those situated differently. The reader’s heart breaks at least once a page. His mother Astrid struggles with mental issues, but she loves her son. His plight will be great fodder for discussion in the classroom or around the dinner table. Felix is engaging, appealing, and faces the most appalling adult dilemmas with grit and grace. Written in a breezy, conversational style, the book is a quick read, for all its depth. Is he correct? Is he wrong? The answer is none of the above.Īuthor Susin Nielsin does a spectacular job depicting an ordinary boy living in extraordinary circumstances. Felix thinks he can win enough money on his beloved trivia show Who, What, Where, When to dig his family of two out of trouble. Canadian winter is on the way, and it’s getting harder for Felix to hide his increasingly dire situation. Unbeknownst to Winnie, Dylan or his teachers, Felix is a perfect illustration of Winnie’s point. He’s been homeless for twenty years, and as he says, “You think it won’t happen to you. Instead of crawling into your warm bed in your warm house, you crawl onto a piece of cardboard in a doorway, huddled in a filthy, moldy sleeping bag, just trying to get some shut-eye and not get shooed away or beaten up. Her hard-hitting journalism strikes a little close to home when she interviews a homeless man who sells poetry for spare change: Felix is thrilled to be reunited with Dylan, but is less certain how he feels about Winnie, a know-it-all perfectionist who works with the two boys on the school newspaper. Living in a van means he can go to the French immersion school in the district they used to live in, where his best friend is. But when Mormor dies, Astrid and Felix start their slide into homelessness: from his grandmother’s house, to a sinking condo, to a rental apartment, to a friend’s basement, to a van.įelix, the optimist, lives up to the Latin root of his name. They played at the park, made gingerbread, and watched Who, What, Where, When, a Canadian trivia show.

His “mormor” looked after him while his mother was at work. He used to live with his mom, who he calls Astrid, at his grandmother’s house. And no one knows his secret.įelix has seen a lot in his twelve years.

Due to a combination of bad luck and bad parenting, Felix and his mom Astrid are living out of her ex-boyfriend’s van. Just your average seventh grade boy, right? Wrong. Felix Knutsson loves trivia, his pet gerbil, and hanging out with his friend Dylan.

No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen