No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen (review)

At twelve, Felix is starting to worry about his flighty and moody single mother's approach to life, which has currently left them living in a camper van that they park various places around Vancouver. Astrid, as she prefers her son call her, does manage to fast-talk Felix into the French immersion program at school, where he reconnects with an old friend, Dylan, and falls into half-annoyance, half-friendship with new classmate Winnie, but he's desperate that they not find out about his homelessness. Now there's possibility for him to use his mad trivia skills in the new junior version of his beloved trivia game show, and when he finds out that there's prize money involved, he's determined to win so that he can finally pay for a home for him and Astrid. Nielsen capably captures the strain of homelessness, as Felix struggles to meet his basic needs with limited access to water and electricity, and it's clear also that he must often act as caretaker to his troubled mother. However, the television show component is more gimmicky than plausible, and the book sends mixed messages about the value of social services; the rosy ending, wherein someone kindly provides Astrid and Felix with a place to live, ducks the fact that Astrid is historically a destructive disaster who will quickly wear out her welcome. Readers who can overlook those weaknesses, though, may get some new understanding of the struggle to get by. DS