The Other Felix

by Keir Graff

Worrying about his father losing his job and the bully at school, fourth-grader Felix has terrifying dreams of the same monster-filled place every night until he meets someone there who looks and sounds strangely familiar.

Genres: Juvenile, Middle Grade, Childrens Fantasy, Childrens

19 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2011

About the author

Keir Graff is the author of One Nation, Under God, My Fellow Americans, and, writing as Michael McCulloch, Cold Lessons. His short stories have appeared in a wide variety of publications. He lives in Chicago."

Reviews

[Zach]

LIT

[Betsy]

Excellent story of using dreams to navigate the waking world.

[Paulina Lopez]

Lo leí por recomendación de mi hija. Totalmente recomendado, los adultos no deberíamos dejar nunca de leer libros "de niños"

[Elvia Gonzalez]

Felix is a red head kid who is having bad nightmares every night hen he goes to sleep. He loves going outside but his parents are always working. He doesn't have much friends and he can only go out with his friends if the parent's know who they are. when Felix goes to bed he has repeating nightmares about a monster in the woods and the monster want to try and eat him so one night he runs to the woods and he finds himself wandering around when he finds a piramed and there is a lot more so he goes on each and one of them. When ever he stepped on one a blue light would turn on once he heard the monster he ran as fast as he could but after that he would wake up and do it all over again.

[Hilary]

What would you do if each time you fell asleep you found yourself in a world filled with monsters? Would you run and hide? Would you fight them? Would you become their friends? Imagine it. This is what Felix experiences every night when he falls asleep. At first it is terrifying. Then he meets Other Felix, who looks just like him, but knows how to stay safe in a land of monsters. Felix's dream land becomes a place he longs to visit to escape his real life where he is dealing with parents job stress and a lie that he gets caught in the middle of at school.
The tagline states "for kids who have graduated from Where The Wild Things Are, but are still fascinated by...dreams", yet The Other Felix misses out entirely on the whimsy of Max's wild adventures with the monsters. An ethereal feeling may appeal to fans of books such as Coraline or Olivia Kidney, but this is not as strong of a tale. Felix is only partially developed character - the strongest character development is not in the dream world, but in the real one - and other characters are mere husks of what they could be. The plot feels rushed and underdeveloped. Felix's befriending of the monsters, for example, feels abrupt and artificial. One minute he's afraid of them, the next he's petting them like cats? And the side story of his father's "project" never really makes any sense. All that being said, this could easily hold a place as a bit of bibliotherapy for kids who are bullied or looking for a means of escape.

[Hank]

A boy named Felix enters a wild and darkly forested dreamworld every time he falls asleep. Every time, monster chase him and they are not kind when they catch him. In waking life, Felix struggles with distracted parents and a bully at school. Seems normal enough so far, right? It is until Felix meets another human in his nightmares: himself. But the Other Felix that he meets knows everything Felix doesn't like how to survive in the woods, how to make a bow and shoot it, how to start a fire and how to fend off the monsters.

As Felix learns from the Other Felix, the worlds seem to come closer together. We know dreamworld is a muddy place, but Felix's mother has no idea how Felix gets the sheets so dirty overnight. There's more that changes besides the sheets, though. Felix finds out more behind what distracts his parents and what home life is like for his bully. Real life monsters aren't as simple as the drooly, hairy beasts that stalk the dreamworld woods but you can tell that Felix fortunes are about to change, even while the Other Felix seems to be losing his powers.

To write about two worlds in one relatively short book, it really helps to give great detail about the worlds to make them both alive and distinct from each other. Although the concept of this book is complex, the writing is simple and full of details about the sweaty smell of the monsters, the sight of the swirling mist, and the melodic sound of Felix's teacher's voice. The story never gets too scary or boring, but the ending seems pat and probably could have had more...'bite'.

[Bethany]

Felix lives in a big city; he's never seen real mountains or lakes, but now he sees them every night, when he dreams. Every time Felix sleeps, now--now that his father's work project is going badly and his dad's never around and there's a big kid at school who doesn't want to be Felix's friend--he winds up in a wild world of monsters and Other Felix. Other Felix saves Felix from the monsters, shows him how to build a bow, how to hunt, how to fight monsters, and the Felixes are friends; Felix even looks forward to dreaming, to getting away from home and school. But Other Felix starts having trouble fighting the monsters, and he begins acting weird and not very nice, and Felix suddenly doesn't want to be there, either.

I...don't know if I liked this. I was reading the book, interested and needing to know what would happen, waiting to find out What Was Going On. I was anticipating some big reveal, a twist or a resolution with a bang, and I didn't get one. It's a very exciting book, with the monsters and the jungle, but in the end, nothing really does happen, and things in Felix's real life improve slightly. So, while there's adventure and suspense, it's also somehow a very quiet book, a look inside the psyche of a stressed little boy, and ultimately, it's very realistic. I guess I kind of liked it.

[Tessa]

I love a children's chapter book that doesn't oversimplify the message. Besides being beautifully written, The Other Felix tells a multifaceted story about facing fears and weighing an inherent goodness and sensible outlook against the appeal of revenge. Felix is a believable and relatable character with real problems. The exchanges between him and his parents - the stale breath on Felix's face as his father tells of his challenges at work, his mother's exhaustion at the end of the day - are particularly memorable, as are the descriptions of his life in the city; this is no idealistic fairytale. City kids in particular are bound to appreciate the urban environment and Felix's fascination with mountains and lakes.

As an adult reading this book to my kids - 3 and 5, arguably a little young for this kind of story - I found myself as engrossed as they were (one caveat: the monsters in Felix's nightmares were a tad too scary for my 3-year old, though not quite enough to invoke nightmares of his own). This is a book that will grow right along with your child. There's a lot hiding just beneath the surface that young readers will come to find in time.

[Christy Stillwell]

The Other Felix was a page turning read. I loved the idea of it going into dream worlds, and I really appreciated that this didn't fall into the "daddy neglects me so I'm afraid at school." Nope, Felix has his troubled sleep issues first, then dad's work issues compound the situation. Ultimately, Felix has to deal with this scary stuff on his own, as most kids do. I thought this might scare my six year old, who has troubled dreams himself, but my eight year old read it herself; it took three nights and she loved it, loved the way*spoiler* it ended with Felix overcoming his fears and teaching people how to get along. Unlike the other reviewer, I was glad it didn't fall back on gore and typical scary stuff. It was plenty scary with those monsters outside the tower. And my kids only had to hear me give a plot outline and their eyes were wide. "Then what?!" my boy asked. I'm saving it till he's seven. Buy this one!

[Terrie]

Felix lives in a big skyscraper apartment with his mom and dad and goes to a big school where he has no friends. And to make it worse, Chase, the new boy is a bully. At night when Felix goes to sleep he goes to a forest dream world where there is another Felix and together they learn how to make tools and fight the scary monsters that chase them. Can the lessons he learn in one world help him in the other?

In a lot of ways it reminded me of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. Written on about a 3rd grade level,the younger reader will think of it as a great fantasy adventure. But, this is actually a very deep and psychologically rich book that will appeal to a much older audience as well. It was well written and really kept my interest. This is a great book to open a lot of literary discussion on contrast and comparison, and foreshadowing, to say nothing of dream interpretation.
I really did like this book.

[Jeff]

Felix has a lot on his mind in his life. There's a new kid at school who's a bit of a bully, and his parents are working hard and things may not be working out with their work.

And then there's when Felix goes to sleep. When he goes to sleep, he ends up in a world with all sorts of monstrous dangers, and an alternate version of himself.

So yeah - a neat concept, somewhat Wild Things-esque, with decent, inessential execution, I thought. For as much action and adventure this could have had, it really stuck more with the emotional chords instead, which I'm not sure was the right choice. With that said, seeing more alternate universe stuff in middle grade fiction is something I don't mind seeing, either.

Maybe worth a look if you can get your hands on it. Definitely good, but not as great as it could have been.

[Sharon Layburn]

4th&up
This is a story where Felix, a boy who has problems at school and at home, finds even more to overcome when his dreams begin to strand him in a dangerous woodland world complete with ferocious monsters and a brave boy who looks just like Felix.
Be warned, the chills come from the real world as much as Felix's nightmares; as his mother briefly discusses her job as a nurse working with extremely sick children (sometimes the children die, their bodies end up in the graveyard, etc), and the Other Felix reveals that he has seen the bones of the children who has served as meals for the nighttime monsters. Not for the squeamish middle school reader, but most in grade four and up should be fine.
Other than that, it is a decent mix of reality and fantasy and a nice twist on facing up to bullies and everyday troubles and finding strength in yourself.

[Lisa]

while this was a quick read, I found it to be very confusing - or rather, I imagine it would be very confusing to a child reader. Felix has nightmares, and is transported into a dreamland filled with monsters... and with another Felix, who looks just like him, yet the Other Felix isn't afraid of monsters. During the day, a new student in class named Chase bullies Felix, and I suppose what confuses me about the story is what metaphors the author is attempting to draw between Felix, the Other Felix, Chase, the monsters, and Felix's parents. I think it could have been a much more powerful book than what it ultimately turned out to be.

[OCLS]

A worried young boy has nightmares every night that literally bring him into a dark and scary world full of monsters. Pretty scary and a fast read.

Dream Big (Summer Reading Program 2012) recommended book

Available from OCLS in print.

[Magda]

Pretty interesting as a story, but definitely geared to younger children in the analogy of What To Do About Bullies. I did like the end when Felix offered to help his dad with his problems.

[Prabakaran Balaharish]

It was super.