Last year I didn't come close to hitting my reading goal of 100. I had lowered it a lot. A lot happened last year. We had multiple deaths in our family. We had a lot of changes at school. I have raised my goal to 150 books for 2020. I just need to work harder at my reading.
This series is one that I am glad I have read. I will give you one review per day. However, it only took me two days to read the entire series. They are short, but powerful. I definitely recommend these books to young and old alike.
Once by Morris Gleitzman
Genre: Middle Grade, YA, Historical
Fiction
Source: Purchased
As a teacher I am always trying to find
wonderful books for my shelves. This is a whole series based around the
Holocaust and its aftermath on people. I definitely recommended it to my
students. Felix is a young Jewish boy living a hidden life in an orphanage. He
believes his parents will be coming for him any day. He has been at the
orphanage for three years. One day the
Nazis’s visit the orphanage and find Jewish books which they take to the
courtyard to burn. Felix is horrified that they would burn these books. His
parents owned a book store. He decides he is going to have to find and save his
parents and their books. He prays for help to God, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the
Pope and Hitler. This gives us an indication that he has no idea what is going
on in the world. Later he adds in the
name of his favorite author and removes Hitler’s name. He gets himself and
others out of trouble by telling stories. I think it was Felix’s love of books
that helped me connect to him. He runs away from the orphanage and rescues a
young girl whose parents are killed. It seems to be his mission to help others
as he tries to find his parents. This is a wonderful book highly recommended.
Be advised that the author does not water down what the Nazis were like or the
atrocities they inflicted on others.
No comments:
Post a Comment