What do you do when you are terribly alone?

Perhaps you should follow Felix Foxly’s example. He has no friends. His mom and dad always work late. And his home school teacher, Miss Tiddlespout, is always grumpy. His parents don’t even want to get him a pet! Cats pee everywhere and his dad is allergic to dogs.

But then, one day, Felix decides to take matters into his own hands.

Never again will he be alone.

All he has to do, is build himself a friend …

Pixel is filled with lots of fun and amazing adventures. Any kid who has ever been alone would love to have this wonderful robot as a friend!

Pixel is available at all good book shops and online at Loot.

Buy ebook from Amazon.

Buy from Lapa publishers.

Buy ebook from Lapa publishers.

Pieksel is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar.

Video

This video shows how one of Pixel’s illustrations were made.

Excerpt

1

The incredible loneliness of Felix Foxly

In a part of the city where people lived behind towering walls stood a big, big house in a big, big yard. And in the big, big house lived a boy with a small, small voice and an even smaller heart.

“When are you coming home, Mom?” asked Felix Foxly, his voice barely above a whisper. Anxiously he stared at his mom’s image on the cell phone screen. He pushed his hand through his red hair. Then he pushed his glasses back on his nose.

“We’re running a bit late, Felix,” said his mom. She ruffled through some papers on her desk. “Daddy and I still have to finish up some work.”

“But I’m all alone,” said Felix.

“Mommy knows. You’ve been home alone many times before. Order some food online. We’ll see you later. Bye-bye now, my darling!”

Felix tried to keep her on the line. But his mom’s image disappeared off the screen.

For quite a while after the call had ended, Felix remained seated on the chair near the front door, his legs pulled up to his chest. His eyes moved across their home. The huge entrance hall. The broad staircase. The majestic living room to the left. The expansive study to the right. And further down the hallway, the colossal kitchen.

Everything was quiet in the massive house. Dead quiet.

Felix sighed. Dragging his feet, he made his way to the entertainment room. For a short time, he played some TV games.

Later, he ordered a pizza. His mom and dad worked late every day of their lives. That is why their bank information was stored on Felix’s cell phone. Like so many times before, he used it again to pay for the pizza.

Eventually he hopped off the couch, and quickly ran upstairs to fetch his airplane from his room. It was his latest toy. Amazingly, you could control it by using an app on your cell phone.

Felix loved the red plane. He had even taken it apart before, trying to find out how exactly it worked. How all the little bits fit together. What made it take off and land. He took things apart regularly. Then he would try to reassemble them. It was kind of his hobby. Whenever he ran into trouble fixing things again, he searched the internet for help.

With the airplane tucked under his arm, Felix opened the great front door of their house. He made his way down the twenty-one steps to the garden. Above him the clouds rumbled. It would probably rain soon, but not right now.

Finding a smooth runway, Felix switched on the airplane. Using his cell phone, he slowly guided it down the path, letting it take off eventually. The buttons on the phone controlled every movement.

He steered the plane into a left turn around a tree.

Then a right turn around a garden bench.

Crossing the fishpond, then the swimming pool, and back again.

As he was about to make another flyover, Felix suddenly heard a man calling from the front gate. “Pizza! Did you order a pizza?”

The unexpected voice distracted Felix for a mere second. Before he knew it, his plane had sped off course, zooming right into a tree, and sputtering to a standstill. There it remained, miserably dangling from one of the branches.

“Hey, boy!” called the pizza guy again. “Hurry up, the pizza is getting cold. I’ve got to get the other deliveries done as well. I don’t have all day.”

Felix rushed to the enormous front gate with its curly bars of iron.

The pizza guy pushed the box into his hands. Hurriedly he leaped back on his delivery bike. Felix had hoped they could have a little chat, or at the very least he would have liked to say thank you. But the pizza guy took off in a flash, disappearing down the street.

Felix was left standing at the gate – alone with cold pizza in a box. He gazed up and down the street to see if there was anyone else around. But all he could see were towering walls and giant gates. It felt like he was completely alone in the world. And before he knew it, the rain came pouring down on him.