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Sea Otters Gambolling in the Wild, Wild Surf
In this inventive first novel, young Felix is bored, and stressed about his final exams and his job, and feeling guilty about Mrs P’s spaniel, Vespasian. He finally gains some perspective when his curiosity takes him on a trip halfway round the world.
- GenresFictionYoung Adult
292 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
2 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
John Bennett
466 books5 followersLibrarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 12, 2012
Unusual book but quite funny. Maybe you need to be a 16 year old boy to really get it. Whatever.
October 14, 2011
When a young man has had too much stress, he happens to overreact a little by buying a one-way ticket to China. This young man is Felix, a regular young man who has a story related to many other stories. He has a little sister who irritates him at times. He has a dependent mother who loves him but needs to watch over him carefully. He also has a divorced father who is never around to spend time with his children. Felix is stressed after he applied to colleges. Stress builds for him again when he thinks about the beautiful summer vacation coming to an end and going off to school. Felix plans to release the stress by relaxing the whole summer, but his mom has different plans for him.
His mother feels like Felix should find a summer job so she introduces him to an older lady across the street. The pay in not good, but at least his mom is content, for now. However when Felix's family leaves for a trip, Felix decides to stay home. One day when he becomes bored and decides to go shopping, strange things happen when he goes in a local store. He finds a strange object, which leads him on a secret journey around the world. Felix’s sister would love to get Felix into trouble with his mother. His sister does not care that she is many miles away from him, she has her resource to try to bust him from whatever Felix may be doing.
While I read this entertaining book, I found the comedy to be superb at times but lacking at other times. The humor can be crude in parts of the book, but that is expected from the mind of a teenage boy. What else could be expected from a teenage boy’s mind? For me personally, I found the humor to be too crude at some points. When Felix talks to anyone, his friends, strangers, he tends to use swear words. Using the same few words repetitively can get old quickly. I do not agree with using these words but I respect the author’s way of communicating with the audience facts about a young man social skill. The author is obviously giving the message of how, anymore, young men’s communications skills are so low, that they cannot properly use the English language. So to fill in the empty spaces of what is supposed to be proper English, young men use rude words to fill in the gaps. The author has strong points with swear words through out the book.
The author, John Bennett, put traveling in a whole new perspective when he tells about Felix's adventures in an unfamiliar environment. Bennett has the readers understand cultures of other countries with experiences like when Felix has to find a place to sleep in one of the busiest countries in the world. In a scene, the author adds detail to allow the reader to visualize the confusion that the boy was experiencing. He shows a visual picture of the streets of Hong Kong and many other famous cities. When Felix is in the streets of Shenzhen, the author drew a picture by saying "As I looked out over the city, I remembered the stuff I read about Shenzhen being not much more than a village twenty years ago. It totally beggared belief. I couldn't help but be impressed by the toweringness of the buildings and the marbleosity of the pavements and the sheer scale and complexity of the whole place."
Even in all the confusion Felix was experiencing, I still appreciated the author’s since of humor. John Bennett was very good at putting the reader in the middle of all the action, even the dangerous scenes. When Felix tries to find out more about the object that he traveled around the world for, he gets into some sticky situations when a group of men from a company think he some sort of spy. These parts of the story add suspense to the writing. A large percent of the story is based on suspense.
When Felix’s sister wants to get him in trouble terribly, she will go to extremes to find out what is happening. Since she always wants her big brother to be in big trouble, she even asked her friends to watch Felix when she leaves. Felix had to come up with excuses of why no one has scene him. Since this book is revolved around Felix’s secret absence, the question I was even asking myself was “Will he get caught?” That is how John Bennett adds suspense to create this book.
When I first read the book, I figured the author was just trying to entertain the reader. As I continued to read, I realized that there is a message Bennett was trying to have the readers comprehend. John Bennett wants the reader to be his or her own person. They need to live life how they want it to be by going for a dream. Felix didn't hesitate to take a chance. He followed a gut instinct and chose what he thought was best for his life. He understood the consequences and still felt he knew what was best. When I realized those ideas, I enjoyed the author’s work in the book even more by understanding how the book relates to a persons life. Sometimes people need to take risks even if there is a consequence. That is the message the author sent to the reader.
I enjoyed reading this book very much. The way of entertaining the audience was highly appreciated. I will soon hope to find another piece of work from John Bennett’s collection of books. I hope the next book will be another page-turner like this book. This book was well composed through most of the writing. Only a couple of areas in the book were slow. Other than the crude humor, I enjoyed this book very much and hope the following readers will too. I recommend the book to anyone, especially teenagers.
His mother feels like Felix should find a summer job so she introduces him to an older lady across the street. The pay in not good, but at least his mom is content, for now. However when Felix's family leaves for a trip, Felix decides to stay home. One day when he becomes bored and decides to go shopping, strange things happen when he goes in a local store. He finds a strange object, which leads him on a secret journey around the world. Felix’s sister would love to get Felix into trouble with his mother. His sister does not care that she is many miles away from him, she has her resource to try to bust him from whatever Felix may be doing.
While I read this entertaining book, I found the comedy to be superb at times but lacking at other times. The humor can be crude in parts of the book, but that is expected from the mind of a teenage boy. What else could be expected from a teenage boy’s mind? For me personally, I found the humor to be too crude at some points. When Felix talks to anyone, his friends, strangers, he tends to use swear words. Using the same few words repetitively can get old quickly. I do not agree with using these words but I respect the author’s way of communicating with the audience facts about a young man social skill. The author is obviously giving the message of how, anymore, young men’s communications skills are so low, that they cannot properly use the English language. So to fill in the empty spaces of what is supposed to be proper English, young men use rude words to fill in the gaps. The author has strong points with swear words through out the book.
The author, John Bennett, put traveling in a whole new perspective when he tells about Felix's adventures in an unfamiliar environment. Bennett has the readers understand cultures of other countries with experiences like when Felix has to find a place to sleep in one of the busiest countries in the world. In a scene, the author adds detail to allow the reader to visualize the confusion that the boy was experiencing. He shows a visual picture of the streets of Hong Kong and many other famous cities. When Felix is in the streets of Shenzhen, the author drew a picture by saying "As I looked out over the city, I remembered the stuff I read about Shenzhen being not much more than a village twenty years ago. It totally beggared belief. I couldn't help but be impressed by the toweringness of the buildings and the marbleosity of the pavements and the sheer scale and complexity of the whole place."
Even in all the confusion Felix was experiencing, I still appreciated the author’s since of humor. John Bennett was very good at putting the reader in the middle of all the action, even the dangerous scenes. When Felix tries to find out more about the object that he traveled around the world for, he gets into some sticky situations when a group of men from a company think he some sort of spy. These parts of the story add suspense to the writing. A large percent of the story is based on suspense.
When Felix’s sister wants to get him in trouble terribly, she will go to extremes to find out what is happening. Since she always wants her big brother to be in big trouble, she even asked her friends to watch Felix when she leaves. Felix had to come up with excuses of why no one has scene him. Since this book is revolved around Felix’s secret absence, the question I was even asking myself was “Will he get caught?” That is how John Bennett adds suspense to create this book.
When I first read the book, I figured the author was just trying to entertain the reader. As I continued to read, I realized that there is a message Bennett was trying to have the readers comprehend. John Bennett wants the reader to be his or her own person. They need to live life how they want it to be by going for a dream. Felix didn't hesitate to take a chance. He followed a gut instinct and chose what he thought was best for his life. He understood the consequences and still felt he knew what was best. When I realized those ideas, I enjoyed the author’s work in the book even more by understanding how the book relates to a persons life. Sometimes people need to take risks even if there is a consequence. That is the message the author sent to the reader.
I enjoyed reading this book very much. The way of entertaining the audience was highly appreciated. I will soon hope to find another piece of work from John Bennett’s collection of books. I hope the next book will be another page-turner like this book. This book was well composed through most of the writing. Only a couple of areas in the book were slow. Other than the crude humor, I enjoyed this book very much and hope the following readers will too. I recommend the book to anyone, especially teenagers.
January 21, 2019
Fun book to read! Really enjoyed it. Though not so fond of the lack of chapters. It was spilt into parts instead. Still a good read, would recommend 👍
January 9, 2009
i LOVED this book. it was so funny to read, and so much happened, that my head was turning. in a good way. any teenager with a sense of humor will see this book is hilarious, and will love it. no matter what. i mean, the fact that he travels half way aaround the world, without anyone knowing is just so funny.
April 26, 2013
Peeping into a teenage boy's head came as a bit of a surprise. As the book warms up, it gets harder to put it down. With all its twists and turns this book will keep you entertained ALL the time. A must-read. Cheers to weird, carefree, irresponsible, things-we-did-that-make-us-cringe-now times!
P.S. - Louise, you rock girl!
P.S. - Louise, you rock girl!
January 23, 2009
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September 12, 2009
One word: Whatever.
Read
July 1, 2012So Funny!
September 25, 2012
great book, really enjoyed it. its a refreshing read.
September 15, 2015
Not sure I ever want to be in such intimate proximity with a 16 year old boy's thoughts and antics ever again. Funny at times, but also unnecessarily gross.
September 5, 2025
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14583528
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14583528
April 5, 2013
An interesting travel book. I liked it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews