Review: Once by Morris Gleitzman

 

Here's the Goodreads.com description:
Felix, a Jewish boy in Poland in 1942, is hiding from the Nazis in a Catholic orphanage. The only problem is that he doesn't know anything about the war, and thinks he's only in the orphanage while his parents travel and try to salvage their bookselling business. And when he thinks his parents are in danger, Felix sets off to warn them--straight into the heart of Nazi-occupied Poland.
To Felix, everything is a story: Why did he get a whole carrot in his soup? It must be sign that his parents are coming to get him. Why are the Nazis burning books? They must be foreign librarians sent to clean out the orphanage's outdated library. But as Felix's journey gets increasingly dangerous, he begins to see horrors that not even stories can explain.
Despite his grim surroundings, Felix never loses hope. Morris Gleitzman takes a painful subject and expertly turns it into a story filled with love, friendship, and even humor.

My little sister recommended this one to me, and even let me borrow her copy.  She promised me I'd be crying.  And she wasn't wrong.

This is a book about the Holocaust, so it is super, super sad.  Felix has no idea what's going on, he's living in his own little fantasy, and then when he sets out to find his parents, that's when he slowly realizes what's actually happening.  I loved his relationship with Zelda, a little girl he rescues along the way.  She is so cute but also kind of a pain, and Felix tells her stories to calm her down.

This is a super short book, only a hundred something pages, and I feel like I'd be giving so much away if I wrote much more.  So I'm just going to say.  The ending!!!!  It's not what I expected (which isn't really a bad thing!).  I think I need to talk to my little sis about this one.

I definitely recommend this book to readers of all ages.  It's short, but it packs a punch.

Title: Once
Author: Morris Gleitzman
Date of Publication: 2006
Number of Pages: 149
Genre: Fiction
Source: Borrow from Little Sis