« Un jour, je me suis évadé d'un orphelinat pour retrouver papa et maman. Un jour, j'ai sauvé une petite fille qui s'appelait Zelda d'une maison en feu. Un jour, je vivais dans une cave avec sept autres enfants, alors que je n'aurais pas dû. Un jour, j'ai fait rire un nazi avec une rage de dents. Un jour, j'ai fait mon premier voyage en train, mais je ne dirais pas que c'était formidable. Mon nom est Félix. Ceci est mon histoire. »
L'histoire semble-t-il banale d'Oliver, dix ans, dont le rêve est d'avoir un chien. Mais voilà, la vie d'Oliver est loin d'être banale:ses parents, propriétaires d'une grande banque, sont immensément riches, et ne veulent pas d'un cabot sur leurs tapis d'orient. Alors lorsque son ancienne gouvernante kidnappe et menace d'exécuter le chien de ses rêves s'il ne récupère pas 11 000 dollars dans la semaine - la somme qu'elle aurait perdue sur les mauvais conseils de ses parents -, Oliver décide de relever le défi et de mettre en pratique ses modestes connaissances financières pour réparer cette injustice. Malheureusement, les choses deviennent bientôt incontrôlables... S'ensuit une aventure loufoque et tendre où se croiseront seize dromadaires, un trader de cour de récréation très mauvais en mathématiques, et des requins... de la finance.
Late in life, Felix finds himself back where he started, living in an aged-care home that reminds him of his childhood orphanage. He's not happy. His body might be old, but his spirit is still youthful. When he learns that a dear friend from his early years is in terrible danger, Felix doesn't hesitate. He makes his second orphanage escape, goes back to Poland and throws himself into a daring and dangerous journey with a new young friend. Felix knows it might be the end of him, but he hopes it will allow him to do something first. Make a gift to the children of the world that will help them always.
Once by Morris Gleitzman is the story of a young Jewish boy who is determined to escape the orphanage he lives in to save his Jewish parents from the Nazis in the occupied Poland of the Second World War. Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least Once. Once I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad. Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house. Once I made a Nazi with a toothache laugh. My name is Felix. This is my story. Once is the first in a series of children's novels about Felix, a Jewish orphan caught in the middle of the Holocaust, from Australian author Morris Gleitzman - author of Bumface and Boy Overboard . The next books in the series Then , Now and After are also available from Puffin.
Following a heartbreaking struggle to survive as a Jewish child in Germany, Felix faces perhaps his greatest challenge - to find hope when he's lost almost everything. 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...
In the beginning there was me and Mum and Dad and the twins. And talk about happy families, we were bountiful. But it came to pass that I started doing sins. And lo, that's when all our problems began...
Oliver's parents own a bank. This makes them very rich, very important and very busy. Oliver, on the other hand, is terrible at maths and aspires to nothing more than owning the puppy that he frequently visits at his local pet shop.
When a mysterious woman threatens to harm the puppy if Oliver can't remake her fortune (unfortunately, Oliver's parents seem to have misplaced her investment. Something to do with some stuff on the news) Oliver hatches a plan which will take him further than he ever imagined...
