Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
No Fixed Address
Susin Nielsen · 2018
82/100
👍 Worth It
Susin Nielsen writes Felix's voice with the kind of funny-heartbreaking authenticity that middle-grade readers recognize as real, and a protagonist hiding homelessness from his new friend while entering a trivia contest to save the day is a plot structure that keeps pages turning. Kirkus called it 'deeply engrossing and fully immersive,' and the Sheila A. Egoff Prize win adds to a strong external record. A few mature-content allusions are worth a parental heads-up for younger readers, but this is genuinely one of the better books in this batch.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: brief allusion to masturbation and past domestic abuse — parental preview recommended for younger middle-grade readers. We still scored it 82; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety70
substance84
craft86
originality80
accuracy84
hype78
age-fit78
human-eye85
Penny’s verdict82
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