| Title | : | After |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0670075442 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780670075447 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 209 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2011 |
| Awards | : | Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Older Children (ages 8-14) (2013), Carnegie Medal (2013) |
After Reviews
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This part is about the last months of the war and Felix has to fend for himself. As the others: beautifully written.
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I really like the style, the story written from the perspective of a child with a different way of looking at things. Plenty of excitement and unexpected. ONCE upon a time there was a 10 year old Jewish boy called Felix whose parents were taken away by the Nazis. THEN, his close friend and ally, Zelda, was taken away from him also. NOW, Felix is 80, living in Australia, and trying to protect another Zelda, his grandaughter who is also our narrator.
If you enjoyed the Boy in stripped pyjamas or the Edelweiss Pirate series, you will enjoy this great series by Morris Gleitzman.
They are short, easy to read and also perfect for 10 year olds and up. They are not only exciting novels, but very educational. -
After the Nazis took my parents I was scared
After they killed my best friend I was angry
After they ruined my thirteenth birthday I was determined
To get to the forest
To join forces with Gabriek and Yuli
To be a family
To defeat the Nazis after all.
After I finished reading Once, the first story about Felix, 10, a young Jewish boy on the run from the Nazis, I wanted to know more about this brave boy and Zelda, the six year old who became his friend. And so, Morris Gleitzman gave us Then, which did indeed continue the story of Felix and Zelda. When I finished reading that second book, I still wanted to know more and so along came book three, called Now. But this is the story of 80 year old Felix and his granddaughter Zelda, 10. But wait, Now ended in the middle of the war. What happened to Felix in the last two years of the war? Where and how did Felix spend them? Well, we know that he spent time helping partisans with his friend Gabriek. But, how the heck did that come about?
Well, now there is After. After returns to the war, where it is 1945 and Felix has been hiding for two years in a hidey hole in Gabriek's barn, emerging once a night to eat and excercise. The hidey hole is right under the hooves of Gabriek's horse Dom. On the night of his 13th birthday, Felix hears Gabriek talking to some men with guns. Nazis? But they are speaking Polish and are not wearing uniforms and there is a lady wearing a red scarf with them. Confused and scared, Felix decides to follow them when they head off to the forest with Gabriek. Afraid they are going to kill Gabriek, Felix tries to rescue him by yelling at his captors. With their guns pointed and ready to shoot, Felix gives himself up to save Gabriek - only they aren't Nazis, they're partisans and Gabriek is one of them and they have just sabotaged a Nazi train.
When it is all over, Felix is allowed to go home with Gabriek, but when they get there, the farm is on fire, set by the Nazis. They manage to save the horse and find their way to the partisan camp, asking to permanently join. But Felix is an outsider and must prove himself - by stealing a gun from a Nazi. The lady in the red scarf, Yuli, takes him to a village and tells him what to do.
Felix ends up joining the partisans, but as the doctor's assistant not as a fighter. He befriends the maternal Yuli, even fantasizes that Gabriek and Yuli could be his new parents. But the war is still going on, and the more the Nazis are defeated, the more hateful and destructive they become. Life is still precarious - for Felix and for the partisans.
There is much more in store for Felix and Gabriek before the end of the war, but it would probably require a **Spoiler Alert** and I think it needs to be experienced first hand. Suffice it to say, that After did, indeed, give me the sense of closure that I really needed on Felix's story.
Gleitzman, we know, is a master storyteller and the four books that comprise Felix's history are no exception. Caught in one of the darkest periods, witness to all kinds of horrors, he gives us a Felix who has managed to maintain his sense of humanity, fairness and imagination throughout and it is all incredibly believable. And in After, we see the man that Felix will become - a doctor who wants to heal the wounds of the world - small wonder.
After is a true coming of age book. Had things been different, Felix would have had a bar mitzvah at 13 instead of joining a partisan group. But even so, there is a very discernible change in Felix in this book. He is not a young boy anymore, praying to Richmal Crompton, but has a sense of maturity about him that becomes all the more obvious and poignant when he is put into a paternal position of taking care of three Jewish sisters hiding from the Nazis.
I am sorry to say good-bye to Felix now, but am comforted by the fact that I can reread his story anytime I want to. His story is sad, funny, violent and painful, but so well worth reading.
Patience has never been my strong suit, so as soon as I knew it was available in Australia, NZ, and the UK, I also knew I had to order After from The Book Depository (free shipping, Americans!) because I don't know when the American edition is going to come out. Sound good? Why wait? You can read the first chapter right here at
The Morris Gleitzman Collection.
And thank you, Mr. Gleitzman, for doing such a bang up job telling us Felix's story.
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was purchased for my personal library.
This review was first published at
The Children's War -
From the very beginning of the Once series, Morris Gleitzman set out on the extremely difficult task in writing a children's book about the Holocaust. I think back when I first heard about it, I was both skeptical and worried, because it is an incredibly delicate topic and how could one portray it in both an honest and suitable way for kids to read?
As we already know, Gleitzman pulled it off flawlessly, winning countless literary awards and spawning three sequels. This is the final book in the Once series, written after Now, even though it jumps back in time to 1945, while Now was set in the present day.
I'm extremely glad for this final book, because personally, I was dissappointed by Now. Although it was well-written, it fell so much shorter than the standard of the story told in Once and Then. And honestly, leaving Felix lying in a pit at the end of Then was probably not the best way to end that time frame. While Now somewhat provided relief in showing that Felix survived WW2, I didn't feel it reached the heart of the matter as well as the previous novels. So I was extremely delighted to know Gleitzman also felt Felix's story wasn't completely finished yet.
After is set in 1945, during the last weeks of the war. I felt a bit of trepidation as I started, fear that it would not measure up to the other books (you know how it is with sequels!), but it didn't take long before I fell comfortably back into the world of Felix. What can I say really, After is another little masterpiece. Felix grew a lot in this book, and it was good to see that. At times, it is a very painful read, because Gleitzman is amazing at writing out the toughest scenes with the simplest words, and the child-like view the Holocaust is seen through once again stands out.
Gleitzman also doesn't shy away from the grey areas of war, he doesn't sugar-coat anything. People die left and right, the brutality of both the Nazis and the partisans and the Russian army is shown, he doesn't portray any group as 'the good guys', and he makes sure Felix sees it too. Felix himself begins to see things in a vengeful way, he also thinks violently, he also wants to kill Nazis, and while all these themes may be dangerous to present to children, Gleitzman has tackled it honestly and realistically. I really liked the idea of parenting and protection in this book, it really stood out, and Felix's decision to become independent and then his realization of why parents are needed, why mending and healing is needed, is beautifully portrayed.
I don't feel the need to comment much on Gleitzman's writing style here. It's at its usual great standard- lots of short, to-the-point sentences. Felix's voice is as clear and honest as ever, and the hurting and growing his character does throughout this book is amazing to read.
I'm almost a little torn to admit this is probably my favourite book in the series, maybe even better than Then. But I might have to reread it all to make up my mind. I can't seem to describe the plot exactly or what makes it so great, I just know that is is a welcome finale in the Once series, tying up the loose ends, mending and healing the broken, and looking hopefully toward the future.
All in all, this is the conclusion to Felix's story that he deserved and that we were all waiting for. Thank you so much for finishing his story, Morris Gleitzman. -
"It's wonderful when a war ends, but then you remember that things will never be the same. Everyone you've lost will still be dead. Parents and relatives, and pets and best friends. And some people, even if they're not dead, you'll never see again.....Dreams are like stories. We have them for the same reason we have stories. To help us know things and feel better about them."
I'm not crying.....
Okay.... maybe a little and few tears....
OH ALRIGHT ALREADY.... Near the end of this book and for a good literal 9-10 pages....
Like, a TOTAL MESS and even though it was the kind of book that was actually quick/fast read pages so getting through 10 pages isn't that difficult, I was seriously a mess and was ugly crying, bawling, sobbing, couldn't breathe crying with what happened. Oh my heart was breaking so much for Felix but rejoicing for him and then broke again and ugh! THIS is how you write from what I gathered an unplanned rest of Felix's story. Morris Gleitzman had captured the last year of the war in Poland in 1945 and with Partisans (who I take it were also part of some rebellion of sorts) and to get to live in their lives alongside Felix and without giving too much away, I'm so glad Gleitzman followed his gut feeling in finishing more AFTER the third book
Now where Felix is an old man living in Australia and his granddaughter is staying with him and is told from her POV and yet I absolutely loved the two previous books he did to introduce a very special fictional character and Jewish boy living in WWII Poland.
If you haven't read these or don't have these on your TBR, add them and start them when you can because Morris Gleitzman paints an amazing and heart wrenching scene of the Holocaust but it's through the eyes at first of a six year old innocent, naive little boy who was taken to an Orphanage by his parents because of his safety in the first book
Once and
Then his story continues right where book one ends and by book 4 when Morris Gleitzman returns to Felix at the age of 13 (so seven year later after the first book) and now I'm even more excited to pick up the next two books. Only because in the third book, his granddaughter had said something about how the man who had helped hide and take Felix in during the last couple years of the war had helped practically and may as well have adopted him but also raised him until his death; and learning that in the third book, I knew deep down I wanted an extra two or three books or so to fill in that blank and sure enough as Gleitzman said in his note, he felt like Felix wasn't done with his story and I'm glad he decided to finish Felix's story because it's hard to put into words for me of how much I've come to love this little boy and how indescribable he is.
Felix Salinger is a character I wish everyone who read knew and to see these events through his eyes, to see and hear of what he describes it as, how he gets through the war, how he just tells it as it is by trying to learn so many different things and go along with it, I can tell you and promise you this series so far is seriously one of the best WWII historical fiction books I've ever read in my lifetime and totally worth it. -
This is a good series, book 3 seemed to have jumped to modern times but now on book 4 we are back in WW2. A great series if you like books about ww2, the Holocaust but Young Adult.
The POV is great, the author is a clever writer and keep you reading. -
After the Nazis took my parents I was scared
After they killed my best friend I was angry
After they ruined my thirteenth birthday I was determined
To get to the forest
To join forces with Gabriek and Yuli
To be a family
To defeat the Nazis after all.
Jesus. I feel like I've been properly through the emotional wringer with these books.
So at the end of Now, we knew that Felix had survived the war and had emigrated to Australia with Gabriek. We know that Felix survives, so it made me wonder how he would continue to maintain interest and tension in the final two books.
He does it by serving up lashings of Nazi brutality and terror, that's how. Gleitzman writes with a sledgehammer, which is not a style I generally enjoy but because of his subject matter I think it's actually quite appropriate. He never once pulls his punches, which is a brave thing to do, considering this is a MG/lower YA book. But then, when you're writing about the holocaust you really can't beat around the bush of gloss things over.
And that ending. Bloody hell.
The thing that prevents this book from being a complete misery-fest is Felix's delightful narration and inspiring optimism. It's like, holy shit, the kid has has had literally the worst childhood it's possible for someone to have, but he never throws his hands in the air and gives up (which he'd be perfectly entitled to do).
Like the other books, I listened to this on a Bolinda audiobook and it was narrated by the author. This really added to the whole experience.
4 stars -
Felix is an interesting construct. In terms of age – thirteen – he is little more than a child, but when one takes into account the awful things which he has seen and has had to do, he seems very old indeed. He is a marvellous narrator, and is endearingly naive. One of the character traits which I found the most compelling about him was the way in which he continually prays to British author Richmal Crompton, merely because her Just William books kept him company whilst he was in hiding. He is a likeable character, and is both earnest and persistent. The way in which Gleitzman has crafted Felix’s first person narrative voice, which has been written entirely in the present tense, makes everything almost urgent, and this suits the story perfectly. The story is both believable and well-imagined, and the twists and turns throughout render it an unpredictable novel.
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Such a good book. In my opinion this would be better read after book 2. Book 3 leaps forward 70 years in time. I feel that book 3 in doing this created some spoilers. This book continues from the end of book 2 and once again we are back with Felix's lovely commentary and inspiring optimism. very sad and disturbing but Felix never seems to give up hope. I think this is a book that is suitable for older teens. This story gives a very vivid insight into life in Poland during WW2.
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Full of impact, this third story about Felix and the way he survived the war... Without any spoilers, let's just say that this third book deserves careful reading - more suffering, but also resilience, compassion, solidarity and much, much more!
Maria Carmo,
Lisbon, 25 May 2019. -
3.5
Depois de Morris Gleitzman é já o terceiro livro de uma série, publicado pela editora Fábula. Este livro faz parte da Coleção Estrelas da Literatura Juvenil. Desta série, centrada em torno da vida de Felix, foram já publicados "Um dia" e "A seguir". Não li os livros anteriores mas em nada me dificultou a leitura, pelo contrário, fiquei com imensa curiosidade em ler os anteriores livros.
Como já referi antes, esta história centra-se num período da vida de Felix, um rapaz judeu de 13 anos, que vive escondido dos nazis. A história passa-se em 1945, em plena Segunda Guerra Mundial, numa Polónia ocupada, com todo o horror associado a essa realidade. O que Felix já viveu e irá viver nunca deveria ser vivênciado por uma criança tão pequena. Felix irá aprender da pior maneira a sobreviver e a lutar pela liberdade.
É uma história tão bem contada por Morris Gleitzman, com uma linguagem acessível e sensível, não fosse este livro direccionado às crianças a partir dos 13 anos. Quem lê este livro, seja criança ou adulto, não fica indiferente à história aqui narrada. É impossível não se sentir empatia por Felix e por outras crianças que surgem nesta história. Por diversas vezes durante a leitura senti a necessidade de proteger Felix. As crianças foram as que mais sofreram neste horror da II Guerra Mundial.
Não irei perder a oportunidade de ler os livros já publicados e descobrir mais sobre a vida de Felix. Serão mais uma vez leituras emotivas e marcantes. É impossível não acarinhar esta personagem e torcer por ela.
Um livro que recomendo sem reservas.
Boas leituras! -
Tento třetí díl Felixova příběhu byl opět velmi čtivý a přišel mi více "dospělácký". Už v něm nebylo tolik toho naivního dětského pohledu. Přece jen Felix je o pár let starší a podmínky jeho života jsou stále kruté díky probíhající válce. Děj měl spád a Felixovo vyprávění vás chytne za srdce a jen tak nepustí. S každou stránkou se o něho bojíte, fandíte a doufáte. Krásně sepsáno - škoda jen, že už Brzy budu na konci...
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I was in tears by the end of this book. This series is so simple yet incredibly touching. Felix Salinger's journey as a young boy is heartbreaking.
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4.5
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'After' is a beautiful book that will make you smile and cry. I loved it and recommend it to anyone looking for a quick but thought and feeling provoking read.
At first, I thought that Gleitzman wrote Felix's point of view and sentences as too simple and ignorant for a 13 year old but he did not disappoint because through the book, it is obvious that Felix matures. While this happens, his understanding and knowledge grows. His sentences also become more structured and mature. His character development is brilliant. We see a new side of Felix that we didn't see in the previous books. It shows how much he's been through and how it's affected him. This book and character has inspired me to name my son (if I have one later in life) Felix.
'After' captures what it would have been like in world war 2 very well. You are sucked into the book and feel like you're there, feeling and seeing what Felix is. The characters are described very well so you get a great understanding of how they look and what they are saying and doing.
I don't often cry while reading but this book made me tear up several times and cry like a baby for at least 3 chapters straight. You feel so sad, like you're really the one who has to suffer through them instead of just the reader. It is sad but beautiful at the same time. The feeling may not be great at the time of reading but you realise afterwards how beautiful it is. This book captures the best and worst of humanity and in individual people. You can learn from the events that it talks about, the feelings and events the characters go through and the feelings that it makes you, the reader, have.
'After' is a beautiful story that everyone should read. -
I fell into Felix's storytelling pattern with this one...his wishful thinking, his lovely stories to give himself and his friends hope. His moment of horrifying clarity, and the shift in his heart as each of those moments piles on top of the one before.
His second person 'suppose you...' rambles are important as he tries to make sense of what can have no sense...children fighting, hiding, killing. A land where there is NO safety. Not from the Nazis or the partisans or the Russians. A land where children are used, abused, forgotten. Where parents can't protect; where children crave protection.
This book shows Felix first clinging to the idea of family, with fantasies of finding new parents...then he fiercely rejects family, then he creates his own family. We see him growing as a caretaker, a healer, and we are so proud of his willingness to find some tiny inkling of good in the middle of WWII.
In his notes, Gleitzman tells us he didn't intend to write this book, but Felix insisted. I'm reading it out of the order the four books were written...but I needed to see Felix in these last days of the war, when Poland is once more a pawn, this time to the interests of the Russians who have their own ugly motivations for conquest.
Felix grows, but he keeps his core of stories, imagination, believing the best about all people, and his constant rearrangement of the world to fit the ugliness. At his core and his heart he believes in healing...am eager to see what kind of old man he grows into.
On to NOW. -
Another great Felix story narrated on Audiobook by Morris Gleitzman. Felix feels so real to me, he is a character that will stick with you forever and so will his stories. I'd love to see these books made into a movie, I wonder who they would get to play Felix.
We continue Felix's story from the end of the second book "Then", after having spent two years in a hole in a barn Felix ventures out and comes across a group of partisans who are fighting against the Nazi's. He joins this group and so his story continues. As with the other books in this series you will be in for a tear jerker and horrifying war scenes. If you would like to read the first chapter of this story then click here. These books are aimed at a younger audience but I think someone of any age would enjoy these stories. I also feel that lower primary aged children might not be able to read this one specifically as there is a scene towards the end that may be too mature for them.
I believe there's still more we need to find out about Felix. What happened to him after the war and there's the story of how and why he immigrated to Australia. I reckon that Morris Gleitzman should call it "Before" because it's before his happily ever after.
Also on my
blog -
I’m glad Morris Gleitzman wrote After, as it feels fitting that Felix’s story continues from Then.
Felix is older and has lost his innocence, but in his prose, Gleitzman still captures the sense of Felix. I found myself laughing at some of the lines, because of the slightly illogical path they take and how it’s very much like the Felix I read in the first books. I also enjoy how it introduces us to the beginning of Felix’s training as a medical professional, and that Felix’s maturity is reflected in him taking the role of protector and parent to other children. I wish we had explored more of the interaction between the Jewish girls and the Hitler Youth boys, as those scenes started to touch upon the idea of how children hold grudges, but shared experiences can help them see past them.
Finally, I love that Felix continues to have loyal animal companions by his side. The way Gleitzman characterises Felix’s relationship with them is so touching. Dom the horse reminds me of Boxer from Animal Farm, one of my favourite fictional animals. -
Oh. Oh my. Gutted again. Felix, our naive but resourceful narrator has just turned thirteen, having spent more than a year hiding under the floorboards of Gavriek's barn. He's afraid that Gavriek has been taken by Nazis and sets out to rescue him. Instead, he finds that Gavriek is working with resistance fighters to blow up a railroad. The Germans are losing the war but trying to hunt down resisters. This title in the series is unavailable in the U.S. except as an audio or a Kindle edition and that's too bad. The first three books in the series, Once, Then and Now are beloved at my school library. I will have to send for a paperback from an overseas source. It is a painful read but so very important.
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The 4th in Morris Gleitzman's Once series, this one chronicles Felix's life the last year of World War 2.
I can't imagine how difficult it is to write a children's book about the Holocaust. It can't be too harsh but then it can't sugarcoat. Gleitzman walks that line like a Wallenda with just the right amount of humour and innocence.
Even after all that Felix has been through he still has not become hardened to the violence that he sees. As much as he feels helpless, he finds ways to do what he has to to survive and to ensure the survival of those he has come to care about.
I think this one is the most heartbreaking of all though, I couldn't get through it without shedding some tears. -
A história de Felix continua. Voltamos ao passado para descobrir o que acontece com ele no fim da guerra. Gabriek, Yuli e Pavel são elementos da policia secreta, no qual Felix acaba por se alistar. Gabriek e Yuli tornam-se nos seus novos protectores. Gabriek acredita que a educação é a maior arma, e o fará quer ser um cirurgião.
O fim é mais uma vez dramático. Felix descobre que o seu pai está morte, entre pela primeira vez num campo de morte e encontra a sua mãe ... A guerra acabou mas o sofrimento deste menino de 13 anos continua. Como chegará ele a Austrália? -
I've finished this book about a week(?) or two ago but I haven't updated my goodreads besides my ridiculously long non-mandatory probably-put-in-too-much-effort negative review of The Selection. I don't exactly know what to say. This book as well as the parts of the series I've read so far give this aura and aesthetic that I can't really describe. It's hooking, comforting, and each word is taken in and processed carefully, despite having it's reading level not that high. It just feels like the smell of my room. Or home. Or blanket that I've literally had for 12 years but I can't sleep without it. It's like, like, like, I don't know. But I like it. There's a sense of nostalgia and bubbly, kid-like, childish, innocent, pure, blah blah blah in the first few books when we read about Felix and his holocaust journey as only a young prepubescent boy <3 I feel like I'll really pour my entire heart out and opinions in my last review of the series once I really finish digesting it all in. Right now, I will only stay as a loyal reader to the Once series. I'm not leaving yet.
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Realmente esta colecção é das que mais tenho gostado. Apenas li este livro deste autor e afinal existem outros, fazendo quase parte de uma narrativa organizada em vários livros, mas que o autor refere poder realizar-se uma leitura independente. Qualquer das formas, é para dizer que gostei muito deste livro e que recomendo a todas as idades, principalmente aos jovens para desenvolver a sua empatia e generosidade.
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This book was definitely more violent than the rest of them. I would definitely put an age recommendation on it. If you pass out on the thought of blood/ anything with surgeries, I recommend you not read it. Otherwise, this book is really good!
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The fourth book in the ‘Once’ series was very, very sad and filled with war and sorrow on every page. Quite a depressing read, and struggled to find any enjoyment while reading this. Wish I hadn’t read to the end. Sorry, not for me.
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After takes place 2 years after Then which takes Felix on a journey where he meets a group of Partisan fighters where he assists the doctor there. After is overall a great story. But not as memorable as other entries.
