You never know what you are going to get when you open a Morris Gleitzman book. Surprise is the order of the day with any novel by the highly inventive author, and it is this ingenuity that keeps him at the top of his profession.
Always entertaining and often thought-provoking, a Gleitzman novel is a proper story that satisfies on lots of levels. With Once, this clever writer has taken a potentially tricky subject and crafted a powerful short novel that will leave readers thinking long after the last page is finished.
Once is a remarkable and disturbing story. The year is 1942 and we are in Poland in Eastern Europe. Young Felix is living in an orphanage run by nuns high in the mountains. He doesn't know the real reason he is there. He strongly believes that his parents placed him in the orphanage as an act of kindness because their bookselling business was having financial problems.
Felix knows he is different from the other orphans because he isn't really an orphan. His parents are still alive and they will collect him when they have sorted out their troubles.
He is certain that he will soon return to his old life in his parents' bookshop and that all will be well again. He knows that things have got a bit difficult for Jewish people living in Poland, but he doesn't know what is really going on outside.
Once is the story of how Felix loses his innocence and comes face to face with a truth that is brutal and harrowing.