FLY by Alison Hughes

Fourteen-year-old Felix Landon Yarrow, known as FLY "to anyone and everyone in a ten-mile radius" is on a quest of Don Quixote proportions. FLY lives with his mother who works as a caretaker: his father passed away when he was only three years old.

FLY has cerebral palsy and is wheel-chair bound,  his gangly body "arms and legs, hands and fingers flex-locked in cramped, crumpled contortions." He's hard to understand if you don't listen carefully because of his clenched teeth and wayward tongue. He carries around a copy of Don Quixote to remind people that there is more to him than meets the eye.

Because he's confined to a wheelchair, FLY has an aide named Levi, an eccentric young man who wears purple pants and tells FLY everything. Levi is always trying to help him make new friends but FLY isn't very interested. He feels that he goes mostly unnoticed by his fellow students, the exception being Daria. She noticed FLY when his book fell and she picked it up. Unlike others who don't see him, Daria looked into his eyes and smiled. That's when FLY developed a huge crush on her and began watching her.

But in watching Daria, FLY has noticed a group of boys who seem to be rude and are focused on her. FLY notices one boy, Carter, a boy "who walks like he owns the world" and who seems to be center of attention and now seems to be focused on Daria. So for three months FLY watches Carter, invisible to him. FLY has heard Carter boast about cheating on exams and stealing. FLY has a plan to bring down Carter. But plans don't always go as expected and FLY's plan most certainly does not!

Discussion

FLY is a short novel, done in verse, that explores the theme of living with a disability and making assumptions about people without really knowing them. Felix, confined to a wheel chair as a result of cerebral palsy, struggles because people often don't see past his disability. He refers to himself as "Nobody" because he feels he is invisible, a nobody who's not noticed. Sitting in his wheelchair in the hallway, is like being a fixture, a piece of furniture. His disability elicits pity and low expectations. 

 

People assume because his body doesn't work, his mind mustn't either. To counter this he carries a copy of the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes which he refers to as "DQ".
"I take old
DQ everywhere,
like a good luck charm -
physical proof
to ignorant people
that there's a
mind
in this
body of mine."

"Can you blame me?
So many people
make false
connections
projections,
and assume that
because my
body malfunctions,

my mind must,

too."

Felix doesn't like the word "awesome" because it seems to be used in a way that is demeaning.
"Awesome.
It's the kind of praise
surprised people give me
for the smallest 
accomplishment

when they see

my body doesn't work
like theirs does,

and assume
my brain doesn't 
work at all."

He also knows he is not someone to be pitied.
"I am not a poor boy

I'm a smart one,

with talents

only a few will ever discover."

Felix knows that he goes unnoticed and he feels invisible, like a FLY on the wall. He knows people look past him in his wheelchair.

As with the character Don Quixote, Felix sees himself as a chivalrous knight out to save his classmate, Daria from bad boy Carter. In his misguided quest, Felix begins stalking Carter (and Daria) at school. Felix doesn't tell anyone what he suspects about Carter because he sees this quest as giving him purpose. This escalates to sending email messages online to Carter and warning messages to Daria. Sending the messages anonymously, online gives Felix a new sense of power which he enjoys. Felix considers that Daria is innocent and unaware of the type of person Carter is. He considers protecting her from Carter is a matter of fairness and justice. Believing he has the evidence Carter is dealing in drugs, Felix sets out to confront him at school, but that meeting doesn't go down as planned, with Levi getting injured. And his actions don't have the desired effect for Daria either. 

Although things don't work out as planned, the ensuing brawl makes Felix feel alive and that people like Constable Mah are finally listening to him. Even when Daria angrily confronts him, Felix still feels some exhilaration because she is talking and looking at him, even though she's not grateful. Daria tells Felix, 
"A person is more than
how they look.
Talk to them.
Have a
conversation."

This makes Felix realize he has been hypocritical, doing to Daria exactly what he doesn't want people to do to him:
"How many times
have I thought 

the same thing?
Wished the same thing?

That people would
talk to me,

understand me,

not glance and

judge

without a word..."

Felix begins to understand that when he finally reaches out to talk with Daria, he will learn what she is really like, not the damsel in distress as he imagined her to be. He realizes there are many things he doesn't know and now he wants to be open to new ideas and experiences. By the end of the novel Felix is questioning the possibility of giving Carter a second chance, of trying to find out the source of his bus driver Vic's crabbiness and maybe even trying to learn to ride a horse!

FLY is another addition to the juvenile fiction canon that includes Wonder and many other books, exploring life with a disability, and how people with a physical disability are challenged by other people's perceptions. Done as a novel in verse, Hughes succinctly portrays Felix's frame of mind, his experiences, how others relate to him and the events that occur because of his plan. Well-written, engaging, with lots of themes to explore.

Book Details:

FLY by Alison Hughes
Toronto: Kids Can Press    2022
197 pp.