Summary Of Once By Morris Gleitzman

The 150 page book ‘Once’ was written by Morris Gleitzman and published by the Penguin group in 2005. It was set in 1942 in the German mountains at the time of the second World War.

Summary
A ten year old boy named Felix is living in an orphanage in Poland in 1942. Felix finds a carrot in his soup and thinks it is a sign that his parents are coming back to get him. The Nazis come to the orphanage to burn the books in the library. Mother Minka tells Felix that Sister Elwira put the carrot in his soup out of sympathy for him and that his parents are not coming to get him. Felix decides to leave the orphanage. He wants to hide the books in his parents bookshop so that the Nazis don’t burn them.

Felix reaches a house and he finds there are two dead bodies outside, surrounded by dead chickens. At the house he meets a six year old girl named Zelda and she goes on the journey with her. On their way to the city they meet a group of exhausted looking men, women and children wearing the Jewish star. The groups are accompanied by Nazi soldiers and the soldiers make Felix and Zelda join the group. As Felix and Zelda walk with the group, Felix spends six hours telling Zelda stories.

Barney brings Felix with him to give dental treatment to Nazi soldiers. Felix tells stories to the soldiers in order to distract them
Barney and others rip out the plank, creating a hole. People begin jumping through the hole, risking their lives as their are Nazi snipers on the roof of the train. Felix wants to jump but the other children don’t want to, even when Felix tries to calm them with a story. Felix, Zelda and another child Chaya decide to jump. Chaya dies as a result of her fall. Felix realises that Barney has syringes containing lethal chemicals which he found in the abandoned dental surgery. He thinks that Barney might use the syringes to put himself and the other children out of