"Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least once."
By Friday I can be very fractious with my children. Do we have to write Christmas cards when dinner is ready? Who made this mess? Get out of the bath NOW please! Stop teasing each other or we won’t have time to read books.
I sobered up quickly after I completed my latest junior novel , Once by Morris Gleitzman. I plucked it off the shelf because it had a Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour award. It reads in the blurb “Once I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad. Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house. Once I made a Nazi with toothache laugh.” This book gives a voice to the children of the Holocaust.
Felix is the main character, a primary school-aged young boy who talks in first person about his experiences. He starts as a naïve, innocent little boy and by the end of the 150 pages he has been thrust into a world of hatred, death and sadness, with just a modicum of hope.
Gleitzman doesn’t gloss over the Holocaust and paint a story of miracles. He poignantly gives the reader an insight into how children lived, trusted and lost through this terrible period in history.
The story starts in an orphanage and Felix finds a whole carrot in his soup – a sure sign that his Mum and Dad are coming back to him after their “book selling.” And so unravels the tragic journey for Felix, who leaves the orphanage to find his mum and dad. Along the way he meets some kind souls and some malicious people who try to thwart his plans. He is convinced his parents are just trying to sign up authors in Poland for their book store.
We all know the inevitable end for over 1.5 million Jewish children but what makes this story so beautiful is the way that Felix walks towards this death, telling vivid stories to others to numb their loss. He is gradually enlightened by his horrific experiences along the way and has maturity beyond his years in his final moments.
Like Gleitzman's opening/ending quote about having something good in your life, there are glimpses of hope and acts of kindness. Felix's relationship with Zelda, a young Jewish girl, and Barney, the children's adult carer (who even looks after their teeth) are moments of normality.
The story is fiction but was inspired by real events. Gleitzman’s grandfather was Jewish but left Poland before the Holocaust. Ten years ago Gleitzman read a book about a Polish Jewish doctor who helped to run an orphanage and care for two hundred Jewish children. In 1942 when the Nazis killed these children, Janusz was offered his freedom, but chose to be with the children in his care until the bitter end.
The story is fiction but was inspired by real events. Gleitzman’s grandfather was Jewish but left Poland before the Holocaust. Ten years ago Gleitzman read a book about a Polish Jewish doctor who helped to run an orphanage and care for two hundred Jewish children. In 1942 when the Nazis killed these children, Janusz was offered his freedom, but chose to be with the children in his care until the bitter end.
There are also many other letters and notes that Gleitzman read which can be found at his website www.morrisgleitzman.com
Being a mother, I cried for Felix's innocence. A little like the character Barney, who cares for the children but knows their fate. Children depend on their parents. They trust them with their lives.
Once I was a little harsh when my daughter smashed the blackboard easel. Just a bit of wood and chalk. She was turning it into a truck. Bless her.
10 out 10 for this one!
"Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least once."
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