Diversity, Fiction, Illness, Kidlit, Loved-it, NetGalley

Diverse kids books? Yes, please! Felix Yz by Lisa Bunker

Pop quiz!

You like cute books. You also like diverse books. And you enjoy YA and kids books.

Question: will you like Felix Yz?

(tick tock tick tock…)

Answer: Yes! Most definitely YES!!

Why? Let’s get started. First I’ll give you some backstory:

Felix isn’t a very lucky boy. When he was very small, he suffered a scientific accident and was fused with a 4th dimensional being/alien and became half-paralyzed. And not only that – he lost his dad. Felix isn’t one to be sorry for himself about this, but his life isn’t easy. For one, he is bullied. But even those who don’t bully him, think he’s… not quite there. It’s very hard for Felix to make others understand that the reason he can’t move or talk properly isn’t because he’s stupid – it’s because he’s trapped in his own body. To top it off, Felix also has a crush… On another boy. And he’s not sure what to do about that. But that’s the least of his problems. The biggest one, right now, is the ZeroDay… The day when they will try to separate him and Zyx, his alien, and the root of all his physical problems. It’s because it’s very unlikely that Felix will survive… So he has started writing a journal to help him cope with that, and we are his audience.

Reasons to like Felix Yz?

This is, like, the most diverse book ever. If you thought you read diverse? This is probably more diverse. How?

For starters, Felix is… pretty much disabled (there’s a reason why I say ‘pretty much’). Even though he is not really physically disabled, he gets the brunt from everything disabled people have to suffer from. I especially liked it, because this stands for both the mentally and physically disabled! Cause poor Felix has to deal with both pain, inability to physically do stuff, and have people think he’s stupid because he can’t quite talk properly, when in fact he has a fully functioning mind of any normal teen. Of course, it’s not a typical disability, and I don’t want to spoil, but basically… It represents what disabled kids have to go through very well, I think.

Second, to top all of it off, Felix isn’t just physically different. He also happens to like a boy. It adds to the problems of being accepted as well. And although he feels alright about the fact that he might like boys (or both girls and boys, for that matter – we don’t know), it’s that he’s not sure how the other person will feel about it. I like the way this is handled like any straight-people crush would be handled in a book. We don’t get lectured about it or anything. It’s just treated as normal! Diversity at its best.

Then there’s the third part. I think I found this to be the best part of all, but Felix’s Grandy (grandparent) is… of unknown biological sex. They choose their own sexuality, being male for two days, then female for two more, etc. There are even these special pronouns the writer has come up with, I thought that was lovely. It’s hard for me to sum up why I liked it so much, so let me give you a quote from the book (please keep in mind it’s from an uncorrected proof and subject to change):

[Felix asks Grandy to tell him their real name. Grandy refuses, as always.] “Why not?”

“Oh, well, you know, if I did have such a name – note, I’m not saying whether I do or not – nothing frightful would happen if I told you. But it has become important to me that no one around me who doesn’t already know my birth name learn it, whether or not it ends with X.”

“Why?”

“Because then someone might assume vo [they] knew which biological sex I was at birth, and then vo might decide that one of Vera or Vern was the real me and the other was only an act, or a joke, or worse, a mental illness, which is most certainly not the case. I am Vera, and I am Vern, and I am also both and neither.”

Anyway, can’t only be talking about diversity here, right? The book was enjoyable even aside from that. It was just so warm, cozy, adorable. It focuses a lot on love, family, and the fact that even good families might have problems. Then there are all those adorable word plays! Like all of the names in his family (end in “xyz”) or how his Grandy loves making games out of letters and sounds. It’s so adorable, in a nerdy/geeky way, and just too good to be true.

It might be hard for me to explain to you exactly how this book felt, but I will give you something to compare it with. If you liked these books, you will certainly like Felix Yz:

A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet #1) Things I Should Have Known We Have Always Lived in the Castle A Wind in the Door (Time Quintet #2)

Ultimately, it’s a tale about how one feels when they’re different, and especially – when they’re about to die. It’s about treasuring life, taking responsibility, about loving life. About accepting the hand you’re dealt. And it’s just so touching along the way, you will not want to let it go when you’ve read the very last page. I strongly encourage you to give this book a go. It was great.

I thank Penguin Young Readers Group, Viking Books for Young Readers and Lisa Bunker for giving me an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Opinions are entirely my own.

Will you give Felix Yz a go? And do you read a lot of diverse books?