Once is a 2005 children's novel by Morris Gleitzman

Morris Gleitzman

Morris Gleitzman is an English-born Australian writer. He is one of Australia's most successful writers.Morris Gleitzman has also gained recognition for sparking an interest in politically-controversial children's books like Two Weeks with the Queen.He has collaborated on children's series with...

. It is about a Jewish

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 boy named Felix, who lived in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. Although Once is a work of fiction, Gleitzman was inspired by the events of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and Hitler's attempt to destroy the Jewish population of Europe

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

. The sequel to the book is called 'Then'.

Plot summary

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.

External links

• Introductory chapter from Once at morrisgleitzman.com