Week #3: Once by Morris Gleitzman

I wasn't sure if this book was going to meet my criteria of 2010 or later, since it was first published in Australia in 2005. The inside cover said it was published in the U.S. in 2010, so I thought I'd let it slide.

I knew this was going to be a Holocaust book, but I really had no idea what to expect. I usually don't like historical fiction, but I really liked this book.

It's about a young boy (younger than 10) named Felix who is Jewish. His parents have left him at an orphanage with nuns and he's been there for three or four years, convinced that his parents are going to come back for him. Felix is a story-teller: he has a vivid imagination mixed with a child's naivety, he tells stories to everyone, and what he thinks is logical reasoning to his stories leads him to believe many of them are true. For example, when Felix finds a carrot in his soup, he's convinced that his parents sent it as a sign that they're still alive because carrots are his favorite vegetable. This inspires him to run away and find his parents.

Throughout the story, the reader is exposed to the horrors of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust going on in Poland while witnessing Felix trying to make sense of it. It's depressing. It really is. The dichotomy between his perception and the reality is heart-wrenching.

It's no Night by Elie Wiesel in the sense that it's definitely not as graphic, and it's not based on the author's real encounters. But just as I teared up reading Night, I admit I teared up while reading Once, as Felix took pages out of his beloved notebook of stories he had written and gave them to an old woman on the train car who didn't have any toilet paper. Okay, writing this I can see how you might think it's sort of ridiculous that that part was so emotional, but if you read the book and understand the context, you'll understand.

Parts of Once reminded me of Life is Beautiful, the Italian movie with the father trying to shield his son from a Nazi death camp. I watched that movie in high school, and this book would've been a perfect companion.

Once is short (163 pages), easy to read, and exposes the reader to the horrors of the Holocaust in a way that's appropriate for young adults learning about it for the first time. It gives you a realistic picture of what this time period was like for children, and it's very emotional. It's a Sydney Taylor Honor Award book (Association of Jewish Libraries) and I definitely recommend it.

Themes: horrors of war, survival, coming of age, ethics of lying, book burnings/censorship, morality, human rights
Good for: Social Studies classes learning about the Holocaust, point of view, symbolism
Would interest: boys and girls grades 8-12
My grade: A


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