Once - Morris Gleitzman
If you ask teachers of upper primary school, or librarians, for a book recommendation for a 10+ year old who's a good reader, chances are they recommended this. A few kids I was teaching were reading this one year, so I picked up a copy for myself so that I knew what they were talking about. What a brilliant decision!
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Age suggestion: At least 10+ unless you know your kids really well / have parent consent.
Ability range: Grade 5+
Content notes: "Excuse me Miss, what does circumcision mean?" will go down as one of my favourite teacher/student moments. I fumbled an answer along the lines of "it's something that a Jewish boy would have had, but no one else....... Ask your parents". But I've never had a parent complain about these books - they are so impacting and beautiful to read. Yes they are deep and intense, but the holocaust is such an important part of history that I think it's important for kids to have their own way to access this topic at their level of understanding.
If you haven't had a chance to read this - as a child or as an adult, I can't recommend it enough!