It’s 1942, and Felix has lived in a Polish Catholic orphanage* for three years and eight months since his parents left him. They are Jewish and owned a bookstore in town. Making a deal with Mother Minka to hide Felix, they told him they were just going to take care of some bookstore business.

They still haven’t returned. So Felix passes the day writing stories about them saving people and being brave in the outside world. When Felix gets a whole carrot in his soup one day, he decides it is a sign from his parents that they are coming to get him. When Mother Minka sadly tells him it isn’t a sign, he decides to leave the orphanage to find them.

Watching a group of Nazis come to the orphanage and burn Jewish books, he thinks they must be foreign librarians sent to clean out the orphanage’s outdated library.

On his way into town, Felix comes across a lot of puzzling situations. First, he tries to hitch a ride* on a cattle truck that is full of people, but a soldier on top of the truck shoots at him.

Then he goes to his parents’ bookstore, but the books are all gone and a local Christian family is living in his house. They threaten to turn him in* to the Nazis. Finally he happens upon a farmhouse in flames and discovers a couple shot. Their young girl is barely alive. He drags her away from the flames. At first, the girl, Zelda is upset, but then she is just plain difficult, arguing with everything Felix says. When they get caught by Nazi soldiers and taken to the ghetto*, it is her determination not to lose Felix that saves them both.

Despite his grim surroundings, Felix never loses hope. Author Morris Gleitzman takes a painful subject and expertly turns it into a story filled with love, friendship and even humor.

(SD-Agencies)