No Fixed Address
CBC Books | | Posted: June 28, 2018 6:23 PM | Last Updated: June 10, 2020
Susin Nielsen
Twelve-and-three-quarter-year-old Felix Knutsson has a knack for trivia. His favourite game show is Who What Where When; he even named his gerbil after the host. Felix's mom, Astrid, is loving but can't seem to hold on to a job. So when they get evicted from their latest shabby apartment, they have to move into a van. Astrid swears him to secrecy; he can't tell anyone about their living arrangement, not even Dylan and Winnie, his best friends at his new school. If he does, she warns him, he'll be taken away from her and put in foster care.
As their circumstances go from bad to worse, Felix gets a chance to audition for a junior edition of Who What Where When, and he's determined to earn a spot on the show. Winning the cash prize could make everything okay again. But things don't turn out the way he expects. (From Wendy Lamb Books)
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From the book
My leg jiggled up and down. I shifted from one bum cheek to the other. My palms felt damp and my heart was pounding. "I've never been interrogated before."
"You're not being interrogated, Felix. We're just having a chat."
"Are you going to record it?"
"Why would I do that?"
"It's how they do it on TV."
"We're not on TV."
The cold from the metal chair seeped through my pajama bottoms. "Do cops watch cop shows?"
"Of course."
Constable Lee smiled. Her teeth were very straight. My Powers of Observation, or P.O.O., told me that she came from a middle-class family, one that could afford an orthodontist. My P.O.O. also told me that she enjoyed her food: the buttons on her uniform were strained to the max.
"Not really," she answered. "It's escapism for us, too. And we get to shout at the TV if they do something totally bogus."
From No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen ©2018. Published by Tundra Books.