Description

My name is Felix. This is my story.

Felix has been living in an orphanage for three years and eight months when the men in armbands arrive to burn the books.

Going on the run in search of his parents, Felix soon learns that Poland in 1942 is not a safe place for Jewish boys. But can his gift for storytelling keep him one step ahead of the Nazis and help him find his parents?

After all, everybody deserves to have something good in their life at least once.

‘Morris Gleitzman has a rare gift for writing very funny stories and an even rarer gift of wrapping very serious stories inside them’ – Guardian

Once is the first in a series of novels about Felix and his family. The sequels – Then, After, Soon, Maybe and Now – are also available from Puffin.

Publisher Review

"Like "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (rev. 9/06), this Holocaust parable plays its main character's naivete against readers' likely knowledge of the historical realities, but here the juxtaposition is believable and not at all precious; like "The Book Thief "(rev. 3/06), the novel extols the power of storytelling in the face of tragedy, but "Once" pits Felix's stories against even deeper ugliness. ... Gleitzman manages to find a grain of hope in the unresolved (and likely dire) conclusion, but this is the rare Holocaust book for young readers that doesn't alleviate its dark themes with a comforting ending."--"The Horn Book, "Starred Review"This gripping novel will make readers want to find out more"--"Booklist"