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Cover of Then by Morris Gleitzman ThenMorris Gleitzman

Then

by Morris Gleitzman

Ages 11–13 Reading age 11 Novel Set in the past movingthoughtful

Felix and Zelda jump from the train and hide in the Polish countryside with a farmer who risks everything by keeping them.

A story about children, moving and thoughtful in tone. We would put it with children of 11–13, and at a reading age of about 11 for reading alone.

Worth knowing before you buy

None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.

Part of a series

This is book 2 of the Once series, so there is more to read if it goes down well — which is worth a great deal with a reluctant reader.

Our take on this book

In this sequel to Once, Felix and Zelda, two Jewish children who have escaped a train bound for a death camp, must survive in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside — hiding, running, and clinging to each other and to hope in the face of unimaginable danger. Morris Gleitzman writes about the Holocaust for children with extraordinary skill: Felix's innocent, hopeful narration makes almost unbearable events possible to read, and the love between the two children shines against the darkness. This is, by its subject, a harrowing book, dealing directly with the persecution and murder of Jews, and it is intended for an older, prepared reader, ideally one who has read Once first and has an adult to talk it through. For a mature reader of eleven upward it is a profoundly moving, important novel — devastating and yet, somehow, full of humanity and hope — and part of one of the most acclaimed sequences of Holocaust fiction written for young people.

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