Holocaust

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Death of parents, gun violence, blood depiction, antisemitism, World War Two, near-death experiences, fire
Note that I got this book and now I own it. This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

7/10, so this is the first book of a seven-book series and initially I had no idea of what this book was going to be but other people have enjoyed this and seeing this classified as a war book I knew it was going to hit hard like a truck, and overall I did like the execution and how the author could do so much in not a lot of pages which is impressive. Where do I begin? It starts with the main character Felix and he lives in a Catholic orphanage with other orphans like him and some other orphaned characters however for some reason he believes that his parents are still out there somewhere and they will come back but other children come to that orphanage since their parents died somehow so that was an interesting plot point I guess. And he's Jewish and given the circumstances like the year 1942 it's just a horrible time to live in and it's even worse for him only due to his religion which was disheartening but all too real but at least I liked how every chapter started with the word Once hence the title. That's an intriguing stylistic choice I suppose. Only a few pages later he starts on his journey by first escaping from the orphanage most likely to find his parents, did I mention that I liked Felix as a character since at the start he tells many stories to hide the truth however as I move on this isn't the case. Partway through that he meets another character named Zelda who must've been a victim of an attack that happened recently in her neighbourhood since her house was burned down for some reason and soon enough they get along even though their character dynamic is not perfect I'm sure that choice made the book more realistic in a way. The ending is only ok since there was one action scene but the book was a difficult read and the final pages were just weaker than the rest. Wow. I will surely read the next six books in the series and they might be as good as the first. ( )

Félix tiene diez años, es judío, y vive en un orfanato esperando el día en el que sus padres vuelvan a buscarlo. Es el único niño que no es huérfano, o eso es lo que tendrá que descubrir, porque los nazis irrumpen en Polonia, y persiguen y matan a los judíos. Inconsciente del riesgo, Félix se escapa para buscar a sus padres. Quizá consiga sobrevivir y encontrarles, quizá le ocurra algo bueno en su vida, al menos una vez.

This is a good one for fans of Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It also made me think of that movie, Life is Beautiful. ( )

This book is based on the holocaust and the aftermath specifically for Felix who is a young Jewish boy living in an orphanage. Felix has a love for books and struggles when the Nazi's come and take the books he had access to. He ends up running away from the orphanage that he has been at for three years and helps a girl who's parents had been killed. This book gives a great perspective for kids on what life was like for young children during the Holocaust but would be better for older students rather than young ones as the author does not tip toe around the incidents that occured. ( )