The Divide

Felix is a boy whose parents are a little overprotective of him. And who can blame them? Their son has a potentially fatal heart condition. One wrong move could be Felix's last. Considering the circumstances, his parents are doubly horrified when Felix disappears during a family vacation to Costa Rica. While his parents fear that Felix might be kidnapped or lost in the jungle, the truth is far stranger. Their son is in another world - one he entered accidentally while crossing the continental divide. In this other world, magic is real and Felix is treated like a legend that sprang from a storybook. After all, the many odd creatures that inhabit this magical world have never seen a human before and find it hard to believe that one is walking among them. Felix spends the majority of THE DIVIDE exploring the magical world, making friends with its bizarre inhabitants, and trying to find a spell that will send him home. Some of my favorite characters in the book are the brazzles, which are huge, bird-like creatures, much like griffins. The males of the species are obsessed with math. The females are not. This does not make for happy brazzle marriages. Felix also becomes close friends with what is known as a tangle child. Her name is Betony and she is an elf. After getting over the fact that they have really met a legendary human, Felix's new friends are willing to use their understanding of magic to try and help him find his way home. Unfortunately, not everyone in the magical world is so generous and kind. Felix also runs afoul of some unpleasant creatures, including japegrins, who want to take advantage of his helplessness. THE DIVIDE is an imaginative book that I highly recommend to lovers of young adult fantasy. It has likeable characters, as well as villains who are easy to despise. It presents a magical world that the reader can see through Felix's eyes. Also, as an added bonus, it has a wonderful cover. Maybe that should not carry much weight, but for some reason, I was delighted by the cover that split down the middle. Overall, I believe that if readers jump to a magical world along with Felix, they will agree that it was well worth the trip. Reviewed by: K. Osborn Sullivan

The divide is the best book i ever read. The divide keeps you always wanting to read more. The divide is about a boy named felix, that has a heart disease that threatens his life. Felix falls in to a mythtical world where humans are a legend,and mythitcal beings become real. You should read this awsome book.

This was an excellent book!! It drifts you into a new world of excitement and fantasy. After I started reading it, it was hard to put down. I would hid it under my desk in class and read the pages hungrily every time I rode the subway. Not only are there mystery, suspense and adventure there is also magic, and tons of it. A wonderful land is tightly packed in the flaps of the book, one I was very sorry to leave when the book ended. The only disappointing thing about this book is that there is no sequel. But fear not! It is a very new book and hopefully there will be a sequel in the next couple of years, where I can flow back into my mystical universe.

This is a great read. It's an exciting story set in an alternative world mixing myth, magic, science, even interesting stuff to do with math! But it all makes sense. The way the hero, Felix, gets from one world to another is ingenious. I think the age group (9-12 years) is wrong - my cousin enjoyed it and he's 14 and I wouldn't have understood it all a couple of years ago. The hero, Felix isn't the only great character. Some of the mythical beasts are terrific. My favorites are the sinistroms and the brazzle (phoenix in our world).

This book has it all:It has a well-paced and intelligent story laced with wry humour that still manages to unobtrusively educate and tackle such important themes as globalisation without ever become preachy. Ms Kay expertly juggles, weaves, and final neatly knits together at least half a dozen different plot threads.There is a rich cast of quirky and varied characters who avoid the stereotypes so often found in the average children's book. Every character, (even those with only bit parts), in this book feels real. The heroes and heroines have flaws and foibles and the villains all have at least one likeable or redeeming feature. (My personal favourite is Ironclaw; a loveable, fearsome and occasionally pompous brazzle - The Divide's equivalent of a griffin - who specialises in pure mathematics. Yes - The Divide manages to make even abstract maths both interesting and fun!)Best of all though, is the setting. A wonderfully well thought out magical other world that engages the imagination, wraps you up in a sense of wonder and leaves you longing for more.In the book's introduction, the publisher says he is trying to persuade Ms Kay to write a sequel. I sincerely hope he succeeds!I have four goddaughters all of whom are the right age for this book. I am buying a copy for each of them.