Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #400095 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Synopsis
Felix is a special sort of hero. He is brave and resourceful, but has a heart condition that threatens his life. His parents take him on holiday to Costa Rica, where they visit the Divide, a place where the waters that run down to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans separate. But at this exact, magical spot Felix faints, and when he opens his eyes, he discovers he's arrived in an amazing back-to-front world where mythical creatures and magic are real, and humans and science are just rumour and legend. Luckily, Ironclaw, a fearsome, but kindly brazzle takes him under his wing, and together with Bettony, a tangle-girl, they set out to find a cure for Felix's condition and the way back home. And so begins a journey beyond their wildest dreams. Fast-paced and funny, The Divide is a quirky and immensely enjoyable adventure.

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. 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

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 caused to die laughing. Felix is a delightful, sympathetic lad, and I loved his tanglechild friends. Elizabeth Kay has created an exciting, colourful world, wonderfully imagined, and she does it with so much humour! I can't wait to read the others in the series

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 from the Continental Divide into a weird and wacky back-to-front world where mythical beasts are real and humans are not. Soon he meets Ironclaw, a mathimatical loving griffin and Betony the tangle girl. Together they set of on a thrilling quest to stop an evil pixie, Snakeweed, selling untested magical remidies to the ragamuckies, brittlehorns, fire-birds and digglelucks of the world. Felix's time is running out, fast, will he be able to find a cure and the way back home?
Together with Elizabeth Kay's wonderful description and illustrations by Ted Dewan this is a great book for all kids from nine to teenager and the occasional fun loving adult. There are two other books in the series called "Back to the Divde" and "The Jinx on the Divide".

Reveiw by Crazymagic, eleven-years-old