NOT JUST FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Author puts focus on housing
Susin Nielsen did not set out to make her new novel a commentary on the current Vancouver housing crisis, but it worked out that way.
Available now, the young adult novel No Fixed Address tells the story of bright, likable 12-year-old Felix Knuttson. His mother Astrid is raising Felix, a trivia whiz. Astrid loves her son, but her unpredictable and hairtrigger personality causes her to lose jobs, friends and homes.
After losing their Vancouver apartment, Astrid and Felix find themselves forced to live in an old Volkswagen Westfalia van. Astrid says it is just for the month of August while she finds work.
The month comes and goes, and the school year is upon them and Felix wants to attend a specific school. The problem is they don’t have an address in the catchment area; they don’t have an address at all.
Astrid steps into gear and takes Felix to the school and lies (she has varying degrees of dishonesty, as Felix points out) about an application and an address. Felix gets in, but every day becomes a strategic struggle for him as he tries to keep his situation secret from school staff and his close friends.
“When I was writing it, we weren’t in as profound a housing crisis as we are now. I honestly I had no idea how relevant it would be, I guess,” said Nielsen, who lives in Kitsilano with her family.
“I wasn’t writing this thinking ‘ Wow, this is hot-button issue. This will help sell a few copies,’ or anything like that. I’m sorry that it is still so unbelievably relevant.”
Felix is a good kid, a kid you cheer for. Even his mother, who at times is frustrating and selfish, nudges empathy out of the reader. You really do want this pair to catch a break and notch up some big lifechanging successes.
“I loved Felix from the beginning when I decided to write this. I wanted to make him so relatable. Because, at their core, kids who are going through issues like he is are no different from the kids who aren’t,” said Nielsen.
“It is a big issue. I would hope that they (kids reading the book) would walk away with some empathy and compassion.”
Nielsen is an award-winning author and a sought-after speaker who is going to be at the Vancouver Writers Festival for two panel events (Oct. 17 at 10:15 a.m. at Performance Works and Oct. 18, 10:15 a.m. on Granville Island Stage). Both youth program events are designed for kids between Grades 4 and 7.
“I just to try to talk to them on their level, which I think is my level. I just talk to them as I would talk to anybody really. I think that is usually appreciated,” said Nielsen.
A big part of the kids programming is to book authors who know how to engage with an audience full of kids, some whom want to be there and others who had to be there because it is part of their school day.
“We are only bringing in authors who know how to stand on the stage and entertain the kids with their storytelling,” said VWF artistic director Leslie Hurtig, adding there will be lots of multimedia this year.
“The high school events are meant to be more engaging, talking with kids not just about the writing process, but about the path toward being a writer.”
For Nielsen, the challenge that she welcomes is reaching the kids who, left to their own devices, would not be in the audience.
“It’s great when you can open their eyes to the fact that reading can be a fun, pleasurable experience,” said Nielsen.
"I think there is something really special about actually seeing an author. You know, the person behind the words on the page and hearing them talk about the process and about why they might have written a particular book. If you have authors that are good at reading their material, I think that also really helps to bring a book alive as well.
“We can show we’re not all dead like the Bronte sisters, or something like that,” she added.
Before she started writing novels — she has six to her credit — Nielsen wrote for TV shows, notably Degrassi Junior High. It’s that TV credit that often sees her get some misplaced cred from young audiences.
“When I am in schools, one of the No. 1 questions I get is ‘Have you met Drake?’ I have to say ‘no,’ said Nielsen adding that she then has to explain she wrote for the really old Degrassi show, not the Next Generation version with the hiphop superstar.
When Nielsen began writing young adult novels she had a builtin and supportive audience in her young son. Then things changed. He grew up and out of his mom’s work.
“He just loved it,” Nielsen said about reading her earlier works to her son.
“He was so enamoured that his mom actually had written these things. Then for the third book he was 15 and I asked him if he would read it because I really wanted him to read it because I wanted his perspective.
“It was the Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larson and he said ‘Mom, I can’t, I don’t have enough time. I’ve got way too much reading to do for school.’ So I said ‘Well what if I gave you 50 bucks?’ and he said OK. So he read that one. My fourth novel We Are All Made of Molecules I dedicated to him and he still hasn’t read it, and he hasn’t read any of my books since. So if you would like to publicly shame him you can. His name is Oskar ... O -s-k-a-r,” said Nielsen, laughing. “I’m just teasing.”
No Fixed Address, like other wellwritten YA fare, is good enough to also interest adult readers. Some industry stats report that 30 per cent of young adult fiction readers are adults.
“I think the novels which are categorized as young adult are just as entertaining a read as anything else, if they are well written. A well-written book is a well-written book,” said Nielsen who adds her concession to the younger reader is a quicker pace and less “flab” on the story. “I read an article where one guy said he wished they would call it YAH: young at heart.”