Title: Once
Author: Morris Gleitzman
This is part of a trilogy, which I will be finding the other books in the series to read. It was a bit of a hard read for me because it is from the point of view of a very young child. That being said after you start reading it from that standpoint and block out any outside knowledge of the holocaust, it becomes a gripping tale of confusion and trying to look on the bright side of things.
The view point is that of a ten year old polish Jewish boy who has been sheltered thus far from the holocaust. He is living in a catholic orphanage waiting to be reunited with his parents during 1942.
Soon he runs away and embarks on his own, seeing through his unspoiled childs eyes, learning slowly the terrors of what lay in store for people who shared his faith.
This is the story of a very strong little boy, and i'd say that it is safely juvenile fiction. It might be highly upsetting to children as they continue reading it though because as he starts realizing what is happening it all becomes very clear, the Nazi agenda.
I really love that it is from the standpoint of such a young child. It really brings a whole new aspect to the reality of the holocaust and may even drive the point home more of: these were PEOPLE. People just like everyone else, who were singled out. To them, they were no different than anyone else. Just as if you were to have this happen. There would be no real understanding from your part, and definitely not from the children. It's terrible that it happened in the first place, but its a good lesson to look back upon so that we do not repeat our mistakes of the past.
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9026-0
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