You Never know what you are going to get when you open a Morris Gleitzman book. Surprise is the order of the day with the highly inventive Mr Gleitzman, and it is this ingenuity that keeps him at the top of his profession.
Ask a Gleitzman enthusiast why he is a fan and a smile is likely to spread over his face. Always entertaining and often thought-provoking, a Gleitzman novel is a proper story that satisfies many 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 the country is Poland in Eastern Europe. Young Felix is living in an orphanage. He has no idea about the real reason why he is here. He believes that his parents placed him in the orphanage as an act of kindness because their book-selling business was having a few financial problems.
Felix knows he is different from the other orphans because he isn't really an orphan. His parents are still alive and he is certain that soon he will be returning to his old life in his parents' bookshop and that all will be well again.
Felix walks around the orphanage with a smile on his face. 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.
The first big jolt to Felix' naivety comes one morning when Nazi soldiers arrive at the orphanage and set about burning the nuns' books in the courtyard. Felix, who has been brought up to love books and everything they stand for, is appalled. If this is the way things are going, he has to get out of the orphanage and find his parents to tell them to protect the books in the bookshop.