| Once | |
|---|---|
The Front Cover of the Book |
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| Author(s) | Morris Gleitzman |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Series | Once Trilogy |
| Publisher | Puffin |
| Publication date | (Au)-2005 (En/Ir)-2006 |
| Pages | 150 |
| Followed by | Then |
Once is a 2005 children's novel by Morris Gleitzman. It is about a Jewish boy named Felix, who lived in Poland. Although Once is a work of fiction, Gleitzman was inspired by the events of World War II and Hitler's attempt to destroy the Jewish population of Europe. The sequel to the book is called 'Then'.
A ten-year old Jewish boy named Felix he escapes from a catholic orphanage in the mountains of Poland, after being left there by his parents so they could fix their bookstore. He goes to the town he lived in when he was younger and sees that no-one was in the town. A mysterious man tells him that all the Jews have gone to the city. On his way to the city he sees a burning house and finds that two adults and a few chickens are dead. He suddenly sees a little girl who is unconscious and rescues her. When she awakes she keeps on crying for her mother and father. Felix carries the girl (whose name turns out to be Zelda) to the city with many other Jews and sees that they are being killed on the way. When he gets to the city the Nazis are shooting adults and putting children into a truck. A man called Barney saves a few of the children and keeps them in the cellar of a printing room. Felix later finds out that Adolf Hitler was behind the killing of the Jews. Zelda gets a bad fever and Barney and Felix look around empty apartments for aspirin. Felix finds a big jar of aspirin, a story book titled Just William and a carrot for Zelda. He runs into a Nazi soldier who just looks at the book and Zelda's locket that Felix is wearing. Before Felix reaches it, the Nazis find the cellar and the children in it. Barney and all the children (including Felix and Zelda) get sent onto a train that will take them to a 'death camp'. But when Felix knocks a plank out of the carriage, he gets an idea. So he tells some men to break of a couple more planks off. Felix, Zelda and a girl called Chaya escape. Chaya gets shot, but Felix and Zelda survive. The next book in the series is Then and then followed by Now.
It has been a huge children and teen novel and proved very popular.