Book Review - Once by Morris Gleitzman - Young Adult read @PuffinBooks

TITLE - Once

AUTHOR - Morris Gleitzman

GENRE - Young Adult

PAGES - 150

BUY LINK - Click here

SYNOPSIS

Once I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad

Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house

Once I made a Nazi with toothache laugh

MY REVIEW

Whilst staying at a friends house, I had finished my book and decided to see what books she had on her shelf that I could read.

Amongst her array of books I came across this YA (young adult) book and it intrigued me.  How delicately could an author write about Nazi's and Jews in WWII, without traumatising it's target audience?

Set in 1942 and written from the viewpoint of Felix Stanislaus, a young Jewish boy living in an orphanage; an orphanage where all the 162 children no longer have any parents, except for Felix who believes his parents are still alive. His Parents are Jewish Booksellers and have been gone for 3 years and 9 months. 

One day he decides to leave the orphanage and go in search of his parents as they hadn't come back for him. On his journey he comes across many "events" and the author has written his experiences through a child's eyes. Once a truck of soldiers spotted him and one shot at him, at the same time the truck went over a bump, so Felix in his child's mind, thinks the gun went off accidentally because of the bump. There are many incidents like this which he always has an innocent answer for.

For a short read (150 pages) this book is beautifully written and has an awful lot of content packed into it. I loved the authors style of writing. The atrocities of war have been handled really well. Some parts are quite horrific, like Nazi soldiers shooting people at point blank range, but it is a great history lesson for YA's. 

Felix is written as a wonderfully kind and friendly young man. He befriends a young girl called Zelda on his journey. He knows her parents are no longer alive, but out of his desire to protect her, he doesn't tell her and leads her to believe they will find them on their travels. He becomes almost like a Big Brother to her. Their journey is an interesting one and highlights the courageousness of people during such a horrendous time and history, and the lengths people went to to protect their fellow man.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

There is so much written about this amazing author. I have just chosen his short Biography

Copyright Penguin Random House

but he has a longer one on his website, which you need to check out as this Author is such an interesting person.

Morris Gleitzman is a bestselling Australian children’s author. His books explore serious and sometimes confronting subjects in humourous and unexpected ways. His titles include Two Weeks With The Queen, Grace, Doubting Thomas, Bumface, Give Peas A Chance, Extra Time, Loyal Creatures, Snot Chocolateand the series Once, Then, Now, After, Soon and Maybe. Morris lives in Sydney and Brisbane, and his books are published in more than twenty countries.

Connect with Morris on his website; Facebook

Check out the link to his new book in the Felix Series "Maybe". Click here