No Fixed Address ~ Susin Nielsen
Wow. Do NOT sleep on this title. (Ahem, Riley đź‘€)
In this incredible coming-of-age novel, protagonist Felix Knutsson is up against a lot more than the typical middle school growing pains. After being bumped around from home, to apartment, to basement, to a friend’s basement, Felix and his mom (who prefers to be called Astrid), wind up living out of a van. Though the van is meant to be temporary, and at first, they have a fun time exploring their home city of Vancouver campout-style, their situation begins to feel less and less like an adventure and more like a nightmare after several months go by with no permanent housing in sight.
Astrid continually lets Felix down by getting fired from jobs, lying, or stealing. It gets harder to make ends meet, and it gets harder for Felix to keep lying to his friends, family, and teachers about how difficult life actually is. So when Felix has an opportunity to put his extraordinary memory to use on a junior gameshow (and win some money), he jumps on it. He imagines that the $25,000 prize could solve all his and Astrid’s problems. But what he doesn’t expect is ending up in a police precinct the night before the first round…
This novel will be a page turner for students (though I might not recommend it to super reluctant readers), and it would make an awesome read-aloud. Every character is multidimensional, deep, and the themes in the novel are discussion-worthy and important.
Maturity: 1/4
This novel is ideal for age 10+. There is no mature content in this novel, though there is mention of Astrid’s boyfriend hitting her, but it is not an event in the book, nor is it described.
Pages: 271
Lexile: 620L
Lexile is a score that helps educators and parents match students with an appropriate text. A Lexile score is a measure of both a child’s reading ability and a text difficulty. However, Lexile does not take into account the content of a novel. So, pairing readers with a text is a complex process, and knowledge of a novel’s themes and plot is necessary to make a high-quality recommendation.
If you are curious about the grade-level equivalent to Lexile scores, check out the conversion chart here!
Happy Reading!
♥ Kara & Riley
