PENGUIN Once & Then

The book came in really good condition and for a good price. I’m so glad I’ve found this book

Read this rather than "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" for a child suitable (ages 10+) book about the holocaust which will also appeal to adults.Morris Gleitzman has written a wonderful series of books (of which "Once" is the first) which are very readable despite their challenging subject matter. His narrator is a young Jewish boy, Felix, who has a passion for books, especially the "Just William" stories of Richmal Crompton. Poor Felix has been hidden by his parents in a Catholic orphanage and does not know what is going on in the wider world. When he escapes from the orphanage to search for his beloved parents he slowly begins to understand what is happening to Jews and anyone who opposes the Nazis and we are gradually presented with the horrors of life in Nazi controlled eastern Europe. Along the way he meets people both good and bad and takes on the care of a young orphaned German girl named Zelda.Gleitzman does a wonderful job of letting us, along with Felix, slowly understand the realities of the Nazi regime as it touches the lives of everyone, though, with our greater knowledge of the situation, we continually fear for Felix, who has no one left to trust but his heroine, Richmal Crompton. However, he is a brave and resourceful boy and his tragic story is made bearable for the reader through his own humour and the good and kind people he encounters along the way.Gleitzman explains he was inspired by the story of Janusz Korczak, a Polish man who stayed with the orphans for whom he cared when they were deported from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka death camp; his achievement in these books is to show how good is better than evil and will rise above it in the most dire and dreadful of circumstances. Though simple in its presentation, this is no lightweight book and ranks alongside classics of the genre like The Silver Sword and I Am David.

Terrible times are always told best from a child's point of view. Another testimony to the human spirit to survive. Again and again man's inhumanity to man. I recommend this book to all ages.

The packaging together of Morris Gleitzman's two novels in the series, Once and Then makes for a very integrated read (the third, Now, is available separately.)Gleitzman has adopted a hugely effective voice and tone for his novel. The narrator, Felix, a 10 year old boy in Nazi-controlled Poland is believable and empathetic: and the way in which his world picture and naivety is challenged and changed without loss of optimism and hope, despite the dreadful events that surround him, makes for a read which is at times funny, devastating, but ultimately life-affirming.This is a story about the potential of human beings to be monsters and saints; the power of storytelling; and the triumph of the human spirit in the most appalling of contexts, the Holocaust. I think this is an important series. Read it!

Absolutely loved this book highly recommend