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Gleitzman, Morris
4 Reviews
(2)
4-6
Gleitzman's third book about Felix (Once; Then) takes the boy decades and miles away from where we last saw him. Now eighty and living near Melbourne, he's temporarily caring for his granddaughter Zelda. The "Black Saturday" bushfires provide the appeal of a survival story, and Zelda is a credible narrator whose feelings and actions propel the story, which is equally hers and Felix's.
Reviewer: Roger Sutton
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
July, 2012
(2)
4-6
Picking up where Once left off, Felix, ten, and Zelda, six, escape from a train bound for Treblinka. In immediate danger from Nazi soldiers, they find refuge with Genia, a Polish farmwife who passes them off as visiting relatives. Felix's present-tense narrative is heartfelt, and the horrors of the setting are balanced with propulsive storytelling. Historically honest, but brutal, to be sure.
Reviewer: Roger Sutton
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
May, 2011
(1)
4-6
This Holocaust parable plays its main character's naiveté against readers' likely knowledge of the historical realities--the juxtaposition is believable and not at all precious. Gleitzman manages to find a grain of hope in the unresolved (and likely dire) conclusion, but this is the rare Holocaust book for young readers that doesn't alleviate its dark themes with a comforting ending.
Reviewer: Claire E. Gross
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
March, 2010
(3)
4-6
Satire involving the mascots of the Sydney Olympic Games perhaps won't travel well, but this animal fantasy about a persevering cane toad still scores some points. Limpy--his nickname the result of an unfortunate encounter on the highway--wants to know why human beings seem to hate his kind. Gleitzman is wicked in this send-up of the animal-quest genre, which has at its heart some tough questions about prejudice.
Reviewer: Roger Sutton
4 reviews
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