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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Felix is not your usual hero. Though brave and intelligent, he suffers from a rare illness. His parents take him on the holiday of a lifetime to Costa Rica, where they visit the high point where the waters that feed into the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans separate. There, Felix faints and something extraordinary happens. He wakes up in a back-to-front world where magic is real and humans are imaginary. Luckily, he's taken under the wing of Ironclaw, a maths-loving Brazzle, anda mischievous tangle-girl called Betony. Together they embark on the wildest adventure.
About the Author
Elizabeth Kay lives in Surrey. As well as being a popular children's writer she is a poet and a teacher of Art and Creative Writing.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book has it all:
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.
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 have bought a copy for each of them.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Endless clones of Rowling and Pullman really are becoming a little wearying - the fact that this author has taken all the standard fantasy characters and created something entirely original is what makes this book special; that, and the humor!
Young terminally ill Felix collapses on the Great Continental Divide, falling in such a way that he slips into an alternate universe. He wakes up in a land where all the mythical beasts: griffins, dragons, elves, fauns, vampires, centaurs etc., are commonplace - and humans are mythical! He finds himself trapped in a world where most of the characters he meets don't believe he exists!
This is a lengthy book with a multi-stranded plot - yet it never feels long, as it moves along at such a brisk pace. In many respects, it reminds me of the old Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree stories, yet much more plot driven and contemporary. Furthermore, what really makes this book fizz is the constant humor.
Many reviewers have admired the unusual cover design - but I thought this was the book's one failing. Both the hardback (with a split cover) and paperback (with a hole in the cover), are very abstract in design. This, coupled with the ambiguity of the title - and the reader's first glimpse of the book conceals what lies within its pages. I suspect that a cover depicting the multiplicity of mythical fantasy creatures found within the text would work better and attract more fans of the genre.
Probably best suited to 8 - 12 year-olds, rather than young adult as suggested above.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found myself giving wry smiles and chuckles at the poke-in-the-eye to multi national companies this book provides for the adult reader. But I then wondered if I would care enough about our hero and main character Felix to wish him his dream come true at the end.
I needn't have worried. In no time, I was roaring along on an adventure ride in a fantasy land filled with beautifully described creatures and beings. The fantastical Brazzles, the unmentionable shadow beasts, the extraordinary Shreddermouth and the noble Brittlehorns all giving something to the plot along the way.
As much as I wanted our friendly heroes, Felix now joined by his tangle-child friend Betony and the Brazzles of course, to succeed I wanted Snakeweed to get his comeuppance.
The sting in the tale of this book leaving me itching for a sequel to see what havoc Snakeweed can cause and how our friends from the other side of The Divide can be brought back into the story. Any chance?
If I enjoyed this magical ride this much, I just can't see how the kids that read it are going to contain their excitement. Any bedtime story reading adult has got his or her work cut out trying to find an appropriate place to stop this story for the night! My guess is most kids won't be sleeping until they've heard the lot.
A cracking read, a great insight into a fantastical world and I'm only left with one question...When will Snakeweed get a taste of his own medicine?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Courtesy of Teens Read Too
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. Read more
Published 18 months ago by TeensReadToo
delightful
I really enjoyed this novel, and it does truly trump Potter. My favourite animals were the comic scholarly Brazzles, and after them the worrits who will only eat people who they've... Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2007 by Leslie Wilson
The Divide by Elizabeth Kay
This book follows the adventure of Felix Saunders, an inteligent boy with a rare heart diseise. When his parents take him to Costa Rica for an amazing holiday, he is transported... Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2006 by Ms. L. J. Harrison
What a great read - better than Potter? You decide....
I picked this book up because of the cover, then read the synopsis and was hooked, took me a couple of days to read and was gripped by the visuals that this author induced, I could... Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2004 by Mrs. F. Mulligan
A spellbinder with a message
Wow! This knocks JK into a cocked cauldron. Great music makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and reading this book did the same. Read more
Published on 16 May 2004
Exceptional, original, brilliant fun, clever and captivating
When I first took this book off the shelf and held the unique split cover design in my hand I knew I was in possession of something special. Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2004 by Belinda K McKenna
The Divide
The mosr exsiting book since Harry Potter. Me personly love all the weild characters and there sence of adventure I like the worrits beecause they look so weird, i also like... Read more
Published on 28 July 2003 by "jonobradley"
The Divide
The Divide is a truly wonderful book. My fravoirite charachter is Ironclaw. I like how Felix and Betony go on so many adventures and there both interested in each others... Read more
Published on 28 July 2003 by "jonobradley"
This one is destined to become a classic!
This book has it all:
A well-paced and intelligent story laced with wry humour that still manages to unobtrusively educate and tackle such important themes as globalisation... Read more
Published on 10 July 2003
Great escapism with darkly realistic overtones
A friend lent me this to read to my eight-year-old while she was ill, and although I'm sure it was mostly due to the antibiotics, I would dearly love to think that this magical... Read more
Published on 21 May 2003
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