'Soon' by Morris Gleitzman

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

I hoped the Nazis would be defeated.

And they were.

I hoped the war would be over.

And it was.

I hoped we would be safe.

But we aren't.

Soon continues the incredibly moving story of Felix, a Jewish boy still struggling to survive in the wake of the liberation of Poland after the end of World War Two.

‘Soon’ is the surprise (at least it was to me!) fifth book in Australian author Morris Gleitzman’s incredible ‘Once’ series of books for younger readers … though, as Gleitzman says in a letter to readers at the end, he prefers to think of these as a ‘family of books’ rather than a series, because they can be read out of order or stand-alone.

When we left young Felix in fourth book ‘After’ (way back in 2012) World War Two was drawing to a close. Our young Jewish protagonist had lost much to this war and the Nazi’s – his mother and father, dear friend and faithful companion Zelda and too many acquaintances along the way. When we meet up with Felix and his protector, Gabriek, again in ‘Soon’ the war is indeed over … but danger still looms for Poland.

I’m crazy about this series. I recommend it to everyone I know – young, old, teachers and reluctant readers – Morris Gleitzman’s ‘Once’ series is among this prolific author’s best work, which is really saying something when many of his books have been turned into stage plays and won countless prestigious awards. I know that all the primary school teachers in my family and friendship group (and there are a lot of them!) are particularly grateful to this series, for allowing them to tackle these incredibly difficult subjects in the classroom in a way that kids can both understand, be deeply affected by and still utterly consumed by the story.

Through Gleitzman’s books, these teachers have broached the subject of war, Holocaust, death, persecution and prejudice with very young children for whom this is the first they’re finding out how awful the world can be, and has been in humanity’s dark past. In all my dealings with youth literature, I find that I live by one rule above all others, which Morris Gleitzman said at Melbourne Writers Festival 2012 – “If it’s in the world, it’s for them.”

Because it’s important that kids know these stories, no matter how awful and tragic. I visited Japan last year, and when I went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum I found this amazing bookshop that sold picture books, graphic novels and chapter books for all ages, across many languages, aimed at children on the topics of World War Two and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular. Because children, even very young children, have to know these stories so that future generation don’t repeat mistakes of the past.

And that’s really what ‘Soon’ is about. The Soviet Red Army pushed out Nazi German forces from occupied Poland, and readers find Felix and Gabriek at the beginning of Soviet communist dominance at the end of the World War Two, over what had become the Polish People's Republic. Gleitzman is glimpsing the periods of social unrest in the country that was trying to heal the scars of war – and Felix starts to comprehend how nothing takes so long to heal as the horrors of war.

Readers have witnessed the traumas that shaped Felix into the strong, kind man of ‘Now’, and in ‘Soon’ we’re still witnessing that transformation unfold. For Felix in this book, it’s really a push-pull of doing the right thing and still struggling to survive.

‘You want to change the world,’ says Gabriek. ‘That’s natural at your age. But only dreamers try to change things when the world’s in this state. Sensible people know it’s as much as we can do to look after ourselves.’ 

I don’t argue. 

I know how lucky we are, surviving this long. How lucky I am to have Gabriek’s protection. 

‘How do you spot a sensible person?’ says Gabriek. 

I sigh. Gabriek says this at least once a day. 

‘They’re alive,’ says Gabriek. 

‘Sensible people stay alive because they don’t get involved in other people’s business and they don’t take risks.’

And there is a lot of violence in this book - don't be fooled that just because the war is over, this is going to be any less a harrowing story. One event in particular happens concerning a woman, so teachers/parents out there may want to read this book so they can have conversations with children afterwards about what happened. I don't think that means children shouldn't read this book - and I'm not advising that "gatekeepers" keep it away from kids, not at all - it absolutely has place in the story because it is speaking to a very true history of war (past and present, sadly). 

This book is Felix coming to the realisation of how wars get started in the first place, when good people who know better stand by and do nothing in the face of other’s suffering. And that’s such a big truth that Morris Gleitzman is presenting to young readers in the tender, beautiful ‘Soon’ that fits so perfectly into this family of books.

5/5 

'Loyal Creatures' by Morris Gletizman

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Like many of his mates from the bush, Frank Ballantyne is keen to join the grand adventure and do his bit. Specially as a chest full of medals might impress the currently unimpressed parents of his childhood sweetheart. So Frank ups his age and volunteers with his horse Daisy ... and his dad.

In the deserts of Egypt and Palestine he experiences all the adventure he ever wanted, and a few things he wasn't expecting. Heartbreak, love and the chance to make the most important choice of his life.

From Gallipoli to the famous charge at Beersheba, through to the end of the war and its unforgettable aftermath, Frank's story grows out of some key moments in Australia's history.

During WWI nearly 150,000 horses were transported from Australia and conscripted to the army – majority of their owners joined the Lighthorsemen, and were sent to the Middle Eastern theatre.

When the war ended in 1918 some of the 150,000 horses had survived.

But only one would be sent home.

‘Loyal Creatures’ is the new novel from children’s author Morris Gleitzman.

I am a huge fan of the famous Australian author, but even this book surpassed my expectations and is most certainly a favourite of 2014. Even more so since last week I had the absolute pleasure of attending a performance of the book’s first incarnation – as a stage play – in an event hosted by Penguin Teacher’s Academy and the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library. Actor Paul-William Mawhinney was the protagonist in the powerful one-person show of ‘Loyal Creatures’, playing 16-year-old Frank Ballantyne – and the performance added new dimensions to the book for me and wrung new emotions from the page.

In 2012, the National Theatre of London was preparing to bring the stage production ‘War Horse’ to Australia. To bring an Australian perspective to the play, adapted from Michael Morpurgo's 1982 children's novel of the same name, they approached renowned Australian children’s author Morris Gleitzman. In 2005 Gleitzman had released the first children’s book in a four-part series called ‘Once’, set in 1942 about a Jewish boy called Felix who is searching for his lost parents. The final book ‘After’ was released in 2o11, and was the end to an emotionally draining, heartbreaking but daring series that explored the Holocaust in a most important way for children – and Michael Morpurgo obviously knew Gleitzman was in a good position to tell a new war story, also for children. Thus ‘Loyal Creatures’ the stage play was written.

Available from Penguin Teachers is the entire script of the ‘Loyal Creatures’ play, which includes a brief note from the author explaining why he then wanted to adapt it into a novel; “Writing the novel gave me the opportunity to further develop Frank and Daisy’s story, add extra characters and include incidents and details that there hadn’t been room for in the play.”

I am so grateful that Gleitzman decided to create play and novel. Both are remarkable in their own right – emotionally wrenching and telling an aspect of WWI history that is almost entirely unknown. Indeed, Morris Gleitzman only stumbled across the information about 150,000 horses sent to war, and the one coming back, during his research. And I can understand why so little is known about this aspect of the war – it reveals the army’s bureaucratic cruelty and goes against the most celebrated ANZAC legend. It instead is a subversive story about the cruelty of man and the sheer pointlessness of war … while also celebrating humankind’s connection to the animal kingdom, and perhaps what that reveals in our own capacity for kindness (when we allow it).

Nineteen fourteen. 

War. 

Did I want to go? 

Course I did. 

Who wouldn't want to choof off to distant exotic places, give a pack of mongrel bullies what for and have the sort of experiences you just didn't get in the Cudgegong district. 

When I told Dad I wanted to go, he tried to wallop me round the head with a canvas bucket. 

Not too hard, I was bigger than him. But I was still surprised. Hitting people with buckets wasn't Dad's style. Plus, since Mum died, me and Dad were a team. Mates. You didn't go round whacking your mates in the head with work utensils. 

Something was going on. 

Dad glared at me. 'You and me'll be first in the trenches,' he said, 'if Germany invades New South Wales. Till then we'll stay out of other dopey idiots' wars.' 

I squinted up at the blokes riding past. They didn't look that dopey to me.

‘Loyal Creatures’ is the story of Frank and his father who both sign up for the war and bring their horses – Jimmy and Daisy – with them. But neither can anticipate that a war which is meant to be over by Christmas will see 416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 will be killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.

But it’s the story of Frank and Daisy that dominates, as both man and beast navigate this God forsaken war the best they can. Far from home, Daisy is a constant and welcome reminder of home, of what Frank is fighting to return back to – they become true comrades, and in the play Frank is governed by his father’s words of wisdom:  

If a horse does the right thing by you, he reckoned, you do the right thing by them. 

‘Loyal Creatures’, the novel and the play are truly remarkable texts. Based on a true, saddening story, Gleitzman imbues this long forgotten historical factoid with warmth and humour, madness and human weakness. He will make you look at war differently, critically, not least by illustrating man’s capacity for kindness alongside the senselessness of war and violence.

5/5  

The adult vs children’s lit debate: An interview with Morris Gleitzman

My name Kill Your Darlings blog is up! I interviewed Morris Gleitzman on children's VS adult & YA lit.

•

And if you want to know what else we talked about, check out this review of his new book Extra Time which is also a mini-interview. 

'Extra Time' by Morris Gleitzman - an interview and a review

 

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

When 13-year-old Matt is discovered impressing the livestock in an Aussie country town with his remarkable soccer skills, he's offered the chance of a lifetime – a try-out at one of Europe's biggest and most glamorous soccer clubs. His younger sister Bridie goes with him as his manager and tells us their story – warts, goals and all.

The funny and moving story of a sister's love for her brother, and how it survives everything fate throws at it, including the millions of pounds and mountains of pressure at the top of the world's most popular sport.

Matt is the soccer star, and his sister Bridie his manager. Matt doesn’t let a busted leg or bullies interfere in his game, same way that Bridie doesn’t let her asthma stop her from looking out for her big brother. This family knows to stick together, after a tragedy pulled them tight and has their mum always fretting, and Uncle Cliff keeping a watchful eye on things.

Bridie and Matt are due some good luck in their lives … but when it comes their way and dreams come true, both are surprised at the many and varied ways that things aren’t made better.

‘Extra Time’ is the new novel from superb Australian children’s author, Morris Gleitzman.

I was lucky enough to have a phone interview with Mr Gleitzman recently, for an upcoming Kill Your Darlings blog. And in-between asking him some very serious questions about a very important topic, I was also able to fan-girl and throw in some Qs about ‘Extra Time’ and his next book … so this is a review/interview of sorts.

There’s a moment in ‘Extra Time’ when Bridie dreams of her and Matt being suffocated by safety;

I have the bad dream again. 

The one I have a lot. 

Me playing for Australia in a World Cup soccer final. Nil-nil with two minutes to go. I've got the ball. Matt wants me to pass to him. 

But I can’t kick. 

There’s bubble wrap round my legs. And my arms. And my chest. 

Matt’s not much better off. His soccer shirt and shorts are made of cotton wool. Which is growing like fungus. 

It’s over his head and feet now. He’s being smothered in cotton wool. The more I struggle to kick the ball, the tighter the bubble wrap gets.

It’s a prescient dream for the many ways that Matt and Bridie have been made overly cautious in their lives, after a family tragedy … but also revealing of Morris Gleitzman as a successful children’s author, who often writes the sort of tough and admirably daring characters that kids love, and parents would prefer came bubble-wrapped.

‘Extra Time’ is about soccer and realizing dreams are not always as easy you’d imagine them to be. At the back of the book, Gleitzman acknowledges the Premier League families for sharing their experience and friendship. I asked him about their involvement as part of his research, and discovered the level of detail that went into writing ‘Extra Time’;

I was over in the UK last year, doing some research for the book. And though it’s not easy – because it’s quite a closed and self-protected world – I finally was able to meet three families who have boys training in different Premier League clubs in their academy system. And they weren’t able to go on the record with me . . .  because they had a sense from our conversation that I was interested in some of the aspects of this whole process that maybe the official football authorities wouldn’t necessarily want to have broadcast. And you can probably pick up from the book what some of those things are. 

So; it formed the core of my research because I got a lot of information, and not only did they take me along with their family to training matches, but I also had a sense of how aspects affected other areas. The impact it had on their families, how important it was to them. And most importantly, I got the sense that for the boys involved (they ranged in age from about 12 to 16) just what a huge focus in their life it is. 

I learnt, for example, that some families were approached by a big club when their son was four-years-old. Even the notion that kids play organized sport at four, I find that a little bit gobsmacking, but certainly the experts and scouts are trained to be able to spot that one-in-a-thousand sort of ability even in a four-year-old. And the clubs aren’t officially allowed to make any formal deal until the boy’s about nine, but such is the competition now to find the world’s best players very young. Because of course it’s not just a question of getting the best players for your team, it’s also big money. 

This is a gorgeous book (as a Morris Gleitzman books always tends to be); easily 5/5 that kids (sports fanatics and couch potatoes) will love, as will boys and girls (young and old). 

It always happens that after reading the latest Morris Gleitzman book, I’m always desperate for the next one. So I asked Mr Gleitzman about his current work-in-progress, and the bad news is; we’ll have to wait until June 2014. The good news is; ‘Loyal Creatures’ sounds heartbreaking and amazing; 

It’s a book I’m developing from a performance piece I wrote last year. I did some work with the National Theatre in London. I wrote a piece that they’ve been using in some workshops, as part of their ‘Warhorse’ stage production. They approached me because they wanted a piece that would look at some aspect of horses in WWI, from an Australian point of view. And I did some research, and hit upon something that absolutely fascinated me which was to discover that we sent about 150,000 horses over in WWI, basically to Egypt and Palestine in the Australian light horse. Many of them were the personal horses owned by the young men who volunteered. And of those, only one horse came back. 

Many were sold to the Egyptian army, British army. Many were sold to local horse dealers, but that was very unpopular amongst the troopers because they saw that the horse dealers didn’t treat the horses very well in most cases. And the rest were shot. And the thing that grabbed me, as the ‘story hook’, was that although the army denies this, quite a number of the troopers who had formed an incredibly close bond with their horse over those four years, in many cases were absolutely convinced that they owed their life to their horse. Rather than have the horse shot in the head, in an anonymous way, in an army bureaucratic shooting, they took their individual horses out to the desert, said goodbye, and shot them themselves. My story is called ‘Loyal Creatures’, and it’s about a sixteen-year-old volunteer, and he and his horse go off to war.

Extra Time is now available, and Morris Gleitzman will be appearing at the Melbourne Writers Festival later this month –

be sure to check out his sure-to-be-wonderful sessions! 

Melbourne Writers Festival recap: ‘The Art of Writing for Children and Young Adults’ PART 1, Morris Gleitzman

 Me and Morris Gleitzman (yes, I'm bright red and a little teary. IT WAS AN EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE! Shut up.)

Yesterday I went to a wonderful Melbourne Writers Festival event. In a little room of The Wheeler Centre, I attended ‘The Art of Writing for Children and Young Adults’ seminar, chaired by the lovely Penni Russon (‘Only Ever,Always’) and featuring two of my all-time favourite writers: Morris Gleitzman and Melina Marchetta.

Between them, Gleitzman and Marchetta are perhaps the pinnacles of Australian children’s and young adult literature, and there was a wealth of knowledge between them that we really only scratched the surface of in three (glorious!) hours.

The session started with Morris Gleitzman; he really focused on his ‘Once’ series (which came to a close this year with fourth and final book, ‘After’) but he also spoke at length on the limitless topics that should be explored in children’s books (no matter how dark or taboo adult ‘gatekeepers’ may deem them).

I loved listening to both Gleitzman and Marchetta, particularly because much of what they were saying in their separate sessions actually connected. I'd like to even call Gleitzman and Marchetta, the Planner and the Pantser, because when they delved into the mechanics of how they write, it presented some nice conflicts and complements.

I madly scribbled notes throughout the three hour seminar, and for that reason I’ll be breaking my post up between Morris’s session and Melina’s.

So, first up, the man who narrated my childhood and continues to tug at my heartstrings with the ‘Once’ series . . . the wonderful, Morris Gleitzman!

•    He suggested that, if at all possible, make your first book a controversial one. Morris Gleitzman’s debut novel was ‘The Other Facts of Life’, released in 1985, but it wasn’t until the 1990 release of ‘Two Weeks with the Queen’ that he really catapulted into the bookish stratosphere. ‘Two Weeks’ was not only about a young boy coping with his brother’s terminal illness, but it also featured two gay male characters in a loving relationship. For this reason the book was often subjected to the ‘gate-keeping’ of teachers and librarians, and really found its audience by word-of-mouth amongst children, who passed it on to friends until it found a life (and success) of its own. Of course, Gleitzman didn’t set out to make ‘Two Weeks’ deliberately divisive, but it certainly helped him get noticed. It was also a boon when the novel was adapted for the stage, and performed across Australia and the UK.

•    He warned that those writing for young people will have to accept that there is a certain stigma attached. Young adult and children’s authors don’t fit into the ‘mainstream’ (and by that, he means adult fiction).

•    When it comes to writing – all stories are about problems, but the plot of any book should be about the BIGGEST problem in the protagonist’s life at that particular point in time. Remember, there is no such thing as a problem-free life (and wouldn’t that be boring anyway?), storytelling is really all about problem-solving. When writing your story, you should make the main character’s problem as feasibly big as it can be, and always have the option for two possible endings (if not more – to keep the reader guessing). And there are really only three outcomes for any problem: Solve. Improve. Survive. Even if you can’t solve a problem, you learn from the struggle (and survival) and everyone changes in the problem-solving process, and learn from what works and what doesn’t. He said that people are capable of anything, even failing – and it’s important to write that too, to show that there are no guarantees in life (this is a common theme in Gleitzman’s work: vital honesty)

•     With his ‘Once’ series, the initial idea behind the books was ‘friendship’. In his many years as a children’s author and speaking to so many young people, Gleitzman really loved the concept of friendship as universal, and prevailing even in the face of catastrophe (watching the nightly news and seeing how truly horrible the world and human beings can be to one another). But to explore the concept of ‘friendship’, while also giving his protagonist one of those BIG problems – he thought to ask the question ‘what is friendship capable of?’ Gleitzman has family-ties to the Holocaust (his grandfather was a Jew living in Poland, who left before the war but lost most of his extended family) and that’s where the idea for a WWII setting started for him. But he also remembered the words Elie Wiesel, a  prominent Jewish author who was also Holocaust survivor, and believed “if you weren’t there, don’t write about it.” It is a very sensitive subject, but Gleitzman truly believes (and I 100% agree) that children need to know the history of the Holocaust. Children are going to take over the reins of the world one day; they should know what human beings are capable of in our darkest hours. So the idea to explore friendship and its capabilities came, with one young Jewish protagonist called Felix, and his non-Jewish friend called Zelda.

•    Gleitzman warned that in this session, since it was a fairly intimate workshop, he would discuss some ‘Once’ spoilers. So, SPOILER ALERT. . .  he discussed how Zelda and Felix were really ambassadors for the some two million Jewish children of the Holocaust. Tragically, many of those children did not survive – so to be truthful to the history he was writing, he knew Zelda had to die in ‘Then’. He maintains it was the hardest thing he has ever had to write, and many of his young readers have never forgiven him (he then said, “I have never forgiven myself.”) But it was because of Zelda’s death that he felt the need to carry on Felix’s story with ‘Now’, and revisit him as an 80-year-old man. Gleitzman gave Felix a chance to confront his childhood with the Black Saturday Bushfires – a modern, Australian disaster that would force Felix to reflect on his own childhood, prompted by the fire’s size, power and blind malevolence. And then of course, Gleitzman decided to revisit Felix in the last months of the war with his latest novel, ‘After’. In this fourth and final book, Gleitzman wanted to show Felix’s experience that made him into a surgeon – and, in particular, that he had a choice between healing and killing.

•    Morris Gleitzman said so many clever, wonderful things – but what really stood out and resonated with me was when he said that everything in the world has a place in young people’s stories. If it’s in the world, it’s for them. Gleitzman has certainly proven this with his books over and over again; in his writing about AIDS (‘Two Weeks with the Queen’), refugees and the Australian boat people debate (‘Girl Underground’), corruption of extreme religion (‘Grace’) and of course the Holocaust in his ‘Once’ series. I love that he writes without boundaries or taboos for young people – that’s partly why I think he is an enduring voice in children’s literature, because he doesn’t write down to his audience and nothing is off-limits.

•    Now, on the mechanics of how he writes. Penni Russon asked if he considers himself a ‘planner’ or a ‘pantser’ (fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writing) Morris really loved this term, and called himself “a planner with pantser moments.” He always starts by meeting  characters in his imagination, and will often spend 1-2 years ‘getting to know them’ until his relationship with them develops, just like a real friendship (interesting to note that he often has 2-3 story ideas circling his head at any given time, but he *writes* them one at a time). He did mention that the needs of the novelist VS needs of the characters can often be at loggerheads. As a writer who becomes ‘friends’ with his protagonists (and even says the collective ‘us’ when talking about them) he would love nothing more than for them to have a problem-free life, free of heartache and struggle. But really, as a novelist he needs to put those characters through hardships and write those BIG problems. It’s the push-pull of being safe, or writing a good story.

•    He plans by writing 2-4 pages of chapter notes, which covers the character’s emotional and physical journey (he picked up this planning habit from scriptwriting, where every minute of screen-time costs lots of $$$ so every scene has to be vital). He will often re-write and draft these chapter notes 10 times.

•    Gleitzman likes to think of his chapter plans as a road-map; that in the actual writing process he might go ‘off-road’, meander down a pretty side-street or take a shortcut, but if he ever gets lost he can refer to those notes and know where he was always meant to be to get back on track and retrace his steps. But he also noted that “some people are just pantsers from day-one” and it’s okay that not all people are planners. But he did make a valid point that whereas he writes about three drafts, the pantser authors he knows can write up to 11 drafts.

•    Really interesting that he mentioned the two seeming ‘taboos’ in children’s literature are sex and religion. But it’s important to remember that the world of Young Adult and Children’s literature will always be mediated by adults – they are gatekeepers and have a great deal of influence over what young people have access to reading. But it’s also important to note that all readers bring their own prejudices and experiences to the page – which changes the innocence of a scene with adult readers (he used the example of ‘Adults Only’ in which a young boy hides under a bed when two adults come into the room, obviously for a nap, and then become restless as they toss and turn on the bed above him. Many librarians asked Morris why he wrote such a lewd sex scene – and he maintains that many young people won’t read more into that than what the protagonist assumed was going on).

•    Morris finished the session on another gem of a thought, which I've been mulling over ever since. He said that it’s important to impart empathy and resilience on children, to teach them those two vital life skills. He also said that kids have an innate resilience and optimism (which the world, life, and growing up seems to knock out of them – all the more reason to emphasise those life lessons early on, so that they hopefully become ingrained).

I would also like to give a quick shout-out of THANKS to my Penguin insider (the lovely Felicity, who is also an awesome photographer!) who made sure I was able to give Mr Gleitzman a stack of letters that my cousin’s year six class wrote for him. They were studying ‘Australians at War’ this term, and I suggested she read his novel ‘Once’. Well, she only intended to read the first book but the kids did a little investigating, and when they discovered that ‘Once’ was the first in a series they wouldn’t let her get away with not reading the others. She was a little concerned about the tragic events of ‘Then’ (and her kids were devastated) but they all LOVED the series so much – she had many reluctant readers in her class, but they were all converted by Gleitzman’s story of Felix and his best friend, Zelda. But, perhaps most importantly, the kids really started to connect Felix’s story with the real events of the Holocaust. What seemed unbelievable in a history lesson suddenly took on life and tragedy when reading Felix’s first-hand account of the heartbreak. I also got their class copies of the books signed by Morris, and apparently the kids are OVER-THE-MOON! They can’t quite believe that there’s a real-life, actual human-author behind the books. Or that their teacher’s cousin actually met him!

'After' Once series #4 by Morris Gleitzman

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

In the fourth part of Felix's story, continuing his adventures in World War Two, he faces perhaps his greatest challenge - to find hope when he's lost almost everything, including his parents. As Europe goes through the final agonizing stages of the war, Felix struggles to reconcile hatred and healing. He's helped by a new friend, but if he should lose her as well ...

*** This review contains spoilers of books 'Once', 'Then' and 'Now' ***

Felix has been hiding in a hole. He prays to storybook hero, Richmal Crompton, that the Nazis do not find him and that the war may be over soon. Felix has already lost so much to this war and Hitler – his parents died in a death camp, simply for being Jews. And two years ago his dear friend, Zelda, and their protector, Genia were hanged by the Nazis. Now it’s just Felix and Genia’s husband, Gabriek, left on the farm, along with trusty working horse, Dom.

But when people emerge from the forest, people with guns who claim they are not Nazis, Felix’s world is turned upside down yet again.

He and Gabriek are thrown into the middle of the Partisan war – a group of guerrilla fighters hiding in the Polish forests, who are doing everything they can to stop the Nazis – by stealing their guns, and blowing up their trains . . . and they want Gabriek and Felix to help them.

‘After’ is the fourth book in what was originally Morris Gleitzman’s ‘Once’ trilogy.

The first three books in Morris Gleitzman’s ‘Once’ series are vital reading. I cannot recommend them enough – and I made it a particular point to persuade my cousin, a primary school teacher, to read them to her Year 6 class. I told her that the books are actually intended for ages 9+, and that Gleitzman has a lovely sense of humour to balance out the darker themes . . . but it’s those dark themes that do in fact make this series so very vital.

With the ‘Once’ series, Morris Gleitzman has said: “This story is my imagination trying to grasp the unimaginable.” By that he of course means WWII, and in particular the events surrounding the Holocaust and genocide of roughly six million Jews.

Gleitzman’s subject matter is heartrending, but it’s a story that should always, at some point, be told and explained to younger generations . . . and I don’t think there is a better way to help young children understand the gravity of such unimaginable events, than by introducing them to Morris Gleitzman’s epic ‘Once’ series. Particularly now that there is a fourth book with ‘After’, and this truly feels like a series that has come full-circle, and took a long, rough road to get there.

‘After’ slots in between books two and three, ‘Then’ and ‘Now’. In ‘Then’, Felix and his young friend Zelda were still on the run, hiding from Nazis and getting help from farmer, Genia. That second book finished on a note of utter heartbreak, and in book three ‘Now’, Gleitzman skipped ahead to Victoria, Australia in February 2009 and the Black Saturday Bushfires. In ‘Now’, Felix is an old man and looking after his granddaughter, Zelda, when the bushfires strike and they are forced to take shelter, just as Felix remembers he did as a young boy hiding from the Nazis . . .

‘Now’ did seem to be the final book of the series for Gleitzman. But it didn’t feel like the end, not really. It was a comfort to read ‘Now’ after the harrowing events of ‘Then’ – it was sweet relief to know that Felix grew old, that he’d become a doctor after the war and dedicated his life to helping people. It was bittersweet to learn that he’d named his granddaughter for his own personal hero, Zelda. But Felix made mention throughout ‘Now’, to events that happened in 1944, when he was part of the Polish Home Army, hiding in the forest and helping to blow up Nazi trains. That was a tale too good to let lie, and I was thrilled to learn that Gleitzman extended his trilogy to include ‘After’.

In this fourth book, Gleitzman delves into the resistance/partisan war effort carried out by the Polish people. Felix and Gabriek meet some nice partisans hiding in the forest, like Doctor Zajak, who wants Felix as his medical apprentice. There’s also Yuli, a Russian woman who escaped from a Nazi work camp and is fierce in her fight against their injustice. Not all the partisans are nice, however, and most of them have the same intolerance for Jews as the Nazis do.

Gleitzman has clearly done a lot of research into the war resistance movements going on across Europe during this time, and he weaves a lot of crucial information expertly into Felix’s story. And it’s during his time with the resistance movement that Felix starts asking some big questions of himself – when he has life and death in his hands, when he is witness to more killing and more violence.

I wish Gabriek had some weapons to help him escape. But he’s not interested in weapons. He’s only interested in mending things. He’s a genius at that. Machinery, animal equipment, electrical objects, anything except weapons.
If my best friend Zelda had met him, she’d have called him a mending person. Zelda was only six but she had the loving heart of a ten-year-old and she knew when a person was good.
That’s another reason Gabriek has to be kept safe. The world needs all the mending people it can get at the moment. There are too many people around who just break things.

I loved that in this book, Felix saw violence being performed by more than just the Nazis. He really sees what human beings are capable of doing to one another during desperate times, and it’s very telling that he often comes to the conclusion that fighting fire with fire just makes more violence, and an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. In this book it’s quite easy to see how the Felix of ‘Once’ went on to become a doctor, and kind old man in ‘Now’.

Be prepared. Morris Gleitzman holds nothing back in ‘After’, as well he shouldn’t if these books are going to inform an entire generation of younger readers about the true horrors of the war. You will cry, but you will also feel that spark of indignation and hopelessness that comes when you look back on the events of WWII and comprehend just how awful human beings can be to one another.

I loved Morris Gleitzman’s initial ‘Once’ trilogy, and I was so thrilled to learn that he had a fourth book planned, to properly conclude the series and brave Felix’s journey. ‘After’ was everything I hoped it would be. Morris Gleitzman’s series is a hallmark of Australian young adult literature, and I maintain that it is vital reading for young children. Yes, the story is sad and violent, but that is unfortunately the very true human history that Gleitzman is exploring. Take comfort in the knowledge that Felix is a wonderful narrator on this harrowing journey. He is the best kind of young protagonist; for he sees the wrongs and atrocities being carried out around him, and he vows to be better and do better, and I feel better for having read his story.

5/5

Australian covers

UK covers

'Once' series by Morris Gleitzman

From the BLURB:

My name is Felix

Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house

I had a plan for both of us

Pretend to be someone else

Be safe forever

Then the Nazis came

Felix is hiding. His parents left him at a convent with other orphans, and then they fled. Because Felix is Jewish, and it’s not a very good time to be Jewish at the moment, what with the war and all.

When Felix receives a sign (in the form of a whole carrot) he is sure it means his parents are returning for him. So he takes his beloved notebook, full of fanciful stories, and he leaves the convent to go in search of his parents.

Along the way he sees the truth of the war. He watches people marching, and soldiers fighting. He comes across a burnt down farmhouse, and finds Zelda – a young girl whose parents have been killed. Felix takes Zelda with him, in search of his parents, and on the promise that they’ll find Zelda’s… even though Felix knows that’s not possible. And the more they wander, the more Felix dreads finding out what really happened to his parents…

Morris Gleitzman’s ‘Once’ trilogy began in 2005, and was followed by ‘Then’ and ‘Now’. In 2012 the trilogy will be expanding, with one more book called ‘After’.

1.5 million Jewish children died in the Holocaust. Morris Gleitzman’s Jewish grandfather lived in Poland, but fled the country before the war. But his extended family perished in the Holocaust. Felix and Zelda are not real, but in writing ‘Once’ Gleitzman was inspired by true events and real-life heroes.

‘Once’ begins with Felix at an orphanage. He knows he is hiding amongst Catholics because he is Jewish, and for some reason Hitler doesn’t like Jews. But Felix has no comprehension of the true scope of the war, or of how Hitler’s Europe has turned against the Jewish people. It’s only when he interprets a carrot miracle and decides to leave the convent in search of his parents that Felix sees the truth of what the world has become.

Along the way he finds Zelda, a young girl who Felix discovers lying beside her dead parents in the midst of a burnt-down farmhouse. Together they escape Nazis, hide in a dentist’s basement and form a bond of friendship in the midst of war.

Throughut the first two books, ‘Once’ and ‘Then’, Felix and Zelda are searching for their parents. They meet characters along the way, and stumble into situations that have them uncovering the truth of this war, and how it’s impacting Jews;

We pause at the edge of the trees and squint down into the next valley. My glasses are smudged.
I take them off and polish them on my shirt.
Zelda gives a terrified squeak, and grabs me and points.
I put my glasses back on and peer down at what she's seen.
Zelda isn't pointing at a distant house belonging to a kind cook, because there aren't any houses.
She's pointing at something much closer.
A big hole in the hillside. A sort of pit, with piles of freshly dug earth next to it. Lying in the hole, tangled up together, are children. Lots of them.
All different ages. Some older than me, some even younger than Zelda.
'What are those children doing?' says Zelda in a worried voice.
'I don't know,' I say.
I'm feeling worried too.
They look like Jewish children. I can tell because they're all wearing white armbands with a blue blob that I'm pretty sure is a Jewish star.
Trembling, I give my glasses another clean.
'This wasn't in your story,' whispers Zelda.
She's right, it wasn't.
The children aren't moving.
They're dead.

-    Then

Gleitzman’s ‘Once’ series has become hugely popular, both in Australia and overseas. The books have even been named in the prestigious Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Teen Readers. This series really is amazing… Gleitzman is looking at the Holocaust from a child’s perspective, and it’s made all the more horrifying and heartbreaking for Felix and Zelda’s naiveté and innocence.

The story is also brilliant for the secondary characters Gleitzman peppers throughout. A few seem to be inspired by real heroes of WWII, like Janusz Korczak who was a Polish-Jewish doctor and children’s author that helped run an orphanage for Jewish children, and ended up perishing along with them when they were taken to a concentration camp. In Gletizman’s book there’s a friendly Jewish dentist, who hides children in his basement and tends to the teeth of Nazi soldiers.

As an older reader you experience the horrors of war creeping into Felix’s reality slowly, bit by bit and with a gut-churning inevitability that you wish you could stop… It’s utterly horrendous. But the Holocaust is something that should always be remembered and taught to younger generations, and Gleitzman’s ‘Once’ series is incredibly accessible for young readers (10+), while never once refraining from the impacts of death or the gravitas of war and genocide.

First two books, ‘Once’ and ‘Then’, are set in Europe and concentrate on Felix and Zelda’s time hiding from the Nazis. ‘Now’ leaps ahead to Victoria, Australia in February 2009, and introduces us to a different Zelda… Felix’s granddaughter, named for his old friend.

February 7th 2009 is a date synonymous with death and destruction – the setting of the Black Saturday bushfires that claimed 173 lives.

When we meet her, Zelda is staying with her grandfather while her doctor parents are overseas on a mission. She is struggling to fit in the small country town, and struggling even more with the weight of her name. She has heard stories about Zelda, her grandfather’s brave friend who died during the war… she has always felt like she will never live up to her grandfather’s memory of the dead girl, or be as heroic as young Zelda was.

I turn back to the car. Felix is sitting there. I've never seen him look so miserable.
I get back in the car.
‘I’m not her,’ I say.
We sit looking at each other and I can see Felix is having a really big struggle deciding what to do.
‘Poor Zelda was killed,’ I say. ‘But that doesn’t mean I will be.’
Felix looks at me some more.
He looks at the bus.
He opens his mouth to say something, but before he can the bus drives away.
‘Anyway,’ I say. ‘There’s too much leaving in our family and not enough staying.’

-    Now

When the day heats up and black clouds loom, Zelda and her grandfather find themselves in a fight for their lives.

I did read the ‘Once’ trilogy thinking it would not finish with ‘Now’. In the third book Zelda learns a few more stories of her grandfather’s time during the Holocaust, one of them being how he joined the Russian resistance in 1944 with his friend, Gabriek… So I was not surprised to learn of ‘After’, a fourth book to be released in 2012.

The ‘Once’ series is truly amazing and heartbreaking. Morris Gleitzman is writing about a horrific moment in human history – but it is vital that new generations know about this past, so that it may never happen again. The ‘Once’ books bring the Holocaust to terrifying life, as told through the eyes of young Felix and later realized by his granddaughter, Zelda. These books are vital reading, and I cannot recommend them enough.

5/5

Fourth book in the series, coming July 2012