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Once
First published 2005 · 192 pages
A heartbreakingly tender journey through unimaginable darkness, guided by the fierce, protective light of a child's imagination.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like holding a fragile, glowing ember in the middle of a freezing storm. The narrative moves at a brisk, urgent pace, propelled by the earnest and heartbreakingly naive voice of a young boy trying to make sense of a world descending into madness. Because the prose is so simple and conversational, the growing dread of the historical reality creeps up on you, creating a profound emotional dissonance between the narrator's hopeful storytelling and the harrowing truth of his surroundings. It is a deeply poignant, tense, yet ultimately tender experience. This book will profoundly move readers who appreciate stories where the sheer resilience of childhood innocence and the protective power of imagination stand as the ultimate defiance against overwhelming darkness.
- Mood
- harrowing
- tense
- tender
- melancholic
- Tone
- innocent
- earnest
- heartbreaking
- hopeful
- poignant
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- loss of innocence · power of storytelling · resilience in trauma · found family · collision of hope and horror
- The writing
- Deceptively simple and conversational, relying on a child's limited but highly imaginative vocabulary to convey profound truths.
- The arc
- Moves from naive, sheltered optimism through a harrowing awakening to the brutal realities of war, culminating in a fierce, protective resilience.
- Who it's for
- Readers seeking a deeply moving, accessible historical narrative that balances profound tragedy with the enduring light of childhood innocence.
Content notes
- Holocaust trauma
- antisemitism
- war violence
- death of children
- separation from parents
About the book
Once by Morris Gleitzman is the story of a young Jewish boy who is determined to escape the orphanage he lives in to save his Jewish parents from the Nazis in the occupied Poland of the Second World War.
Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least Once.
Once I escaped from am orphanage to find Mum and Dad.
Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house.
Once I made a Nazi with a toothache laugh.
My name is Felix. This is my story.
Once is the first in a series of children's novels about Felix, a Jewish orphan caught in the middle of the Holocaust, from Australian author Morris Gleitzman - author of Bumface and Boy Overboard. The next books in the series Then, Now and After are also available from Puffin.
Description from Open Library.
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MilkweedRon RifkinA heartbreakingly naive perspective on unimaginable tragedy, told with breathless energy and profound empathy.
Boy OverboardMorris GleitzmanA heart-wrenching yet fiercely hopeful journey that filters the harrowing reality of displacement through the innocent, soccer-obsessed eyes of a child.
Prisoner B-3087Alan GratzA relentless, harrowing, yet deeply inspiring testament to the human will to survive the darkest of times.
RefugeeAlan GratzA heart-in-your-throat survival story that weaves across time to show the terrifying, hopeful reality of searching for a safe harbor.