I ❤️ Morris Gleitzman

Morris Gleitzman was born in England in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in 1969. Before becoming a writter, Morris worked as a paperboy, bottle-shop shelf-stacker, department store Santa Claus, frozen chicken defroster, fashion-design assistant and sugar-mill employee.

Morris started his career as a writer for the Australian TV comedy series The Norman Gunston Show. He became well known to many people through his semi-autobiographical columns in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald magazine, Good Weekend, which he wrote for nine years.

But the majority of Morris’ accolades are for his hugely popular children’s books. One of the first was Two Weeks with the Queen, an international bestseller which was also adapted into a play by Mary Morris. The play had many successful seasons in Australia and was then produced at the National Theatre in London in 1995 directed by Alan Ayckbourn, and also in South Africa, Canada, Japan and the USA.

Morris’ books have been published in about twenty countries, including the UK, the USA, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia, Czechoslovakia, Russia and China.

Morris Gleitzman is a bestselling Australian children’s author whose books explore serious and sometimes confronting subjects in funny and unexpected ways.

Morris wrote his first children’s novel in 1985. His moving and humourous style has endeared him to children and adults alike, and he is now one of Australia’s most successful authors, both internationally and at home.

Below is a selection of his novels:

ONCE (2006)

Felix, a Jewish boy in Poland in 1942, is hiding from the Nazis in a Catholic orphanage. The only problem is that he doesn't know anything about the war, and thinks he's only in the orphanage while his parents travel and try to salvage their bookselling business. And when he thinks his parents are in danger, Felix sets off to warn them - straight into the heart of Nazi-occupied Poland.

THEN (2008)

Once, Felix and Zelda escaped from the Nazis. But how long can they survive when there are so many people ready to hand them over for a reward? Thanks to the courage of a kind, brave woman they are able to hide for a time in the open, but Felix knows he has a distinguishing feature that identifies him as a Jew and that it is only a matter of time before he is discovered, which will mean death for them all. Even though he promised Zelda he would never leave her, he knows he has to, before it is too late...

SOON (2015)

After the Nazis took my parents I was scared. After they killed my best friend I was angry. After I joined the partisans and helped defeat the Nazis I was hopeful. Soon, I said, we'll be safe. I was wrong. Soon continues the incredibly moving story of Felix, a Jewish boy still struggling to survive in the wake of the liberation of Poland after the end of World War Two.

AFTER (2012)

In the fourth part of Felix's story, continuing his adventures in World War Two, he faces perhaps his greatest challenge - to find hope when he's lost almost everything, including his parents. As Europe endures the final agonizing stages of the war, Felix struggles to reconcile hatred and healing. He's helped by a new friend, but what if he should lose her as well?

MAYBE (2017)

A powerfully moving addition to Morris Gleitzman's bestselling series about Felix and Zelda which takes place in 1945, following directly on from the story told in Soon. This intensely affecting story will move readers of all ages. It will be welcomed by the many Holocaust educators who use Once, Now, Then, After and Soon to teach upper primary and lower secondary children and embraced by any reader who loves passionate, moving and brilliant stories.

TOAD RAGE

Limpy’s family reckons humans don’t hate cane toads, but Limpy knows otherwise. He’s spotted the signs: the cross looks, the unkind comments, the way they squash cane toads with their cars. Limpy is desperate to save his species from ending up as pancakes. Somehow he must make humans see how fabulous cane toads really are. Risking everything, he sets off on a wart-tinglingly dangerous and daring journey to . . . the Olympics?

TOAD HEAVEN

This is the hysterically funny sequel to Toad Rage, Limpy is on a quest to find toad heaven, but his plans are waylaid when he's kidnapped by some sinister-looking humans and tossed into a bucket. There are a total of 4 hilarious books in the toad series.

BUMFACE

Angus dreams of being bold, brave, wild and free, like Bumface the pirate in the stories he tells his younger siblings. Instead he's his mum's Mr Dependable, always looking after the younger ones and cleaning up. He's desperate to stop his mum adding another baby to the family so comes up with a plan to prevent her getting pregnant. With a bit of help from his new friend, Rindi, he might just do it .

GIVE PEAS A CHANCE

Give fun a chance! Surprise your mum with a chainsaw, be a bigger star than Tom Cruise, save the world with a plate of vegetables, start your new life in a taxi, rescue your family with a tomato, send your dad into a panic with a tractor, do a good deed with a paper bag on your head, pack your suitcase for a trip to the spleen, upset your auntie with ten kilos of chocolate, swap a bomb for three ice creams on a steam train . . . and lots more.

SNOT CHOCOLATE

Stop your mum picking her nose, read the secret diary of a dog, catch a bus and then let it go, discover how one slice of toast can make you the most popular person in school, start wearing a crown and give up eating pig-nostril gruel, use a wrecking ball to defeat a bully, show your big sister the very scary secret in your wardrobe, unleash the awesome power of chips, live in a house that gets wiped clean more often than a bottom.

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