Now by Morris Gleitzman

REVIEWED BY JOEL HERMANN

Now is the third book in the spine-tingling series by Morris Gleitzman. Gleitzman is regarded as one of Australia’s best Authors and his latest book in the series only confirms his reputation. This time it isn’t a holocaust story. It is based on the 2009 Black Saturday bush fires.
Now is a fantastic book that touches on friendship, courage and empathy. It follows the same format as his first two novels, Once and Then, beginning the first sentence of every chapter with “Now”. The book continues the story of Felix’s survival during the days of World War Two although, this time, Felix isn’t a young boy hiding from the Nazis in Europe. He is now a retired surgeon and he has a granddaughter, named after the young seven year old, brave girl who died in the previous book, Zelda, and he lives in country Victoria, in a bushfire prone area.
Zelda is a thirteen year old girl who doesn’t quite believe in herself like the other Zelda did. She often doubts herself and doesn’t believe that she can do dangerous things. This changes throughout the story. During the story she experiences great mental and physical challenges which change her belief of herself and her overall personality.
Zelda’s parents are devoted doctors and they have gone to work in Africa. Like the Zelda in Gleitzman’s previous stories, the Zelda in Now is also a girl who lives her life without her parents close by. In this story, Zelda comes to stay with her Grandfather, Felix, who is still haunted by his terrible memories of the Holocaust. This is when the story begins...
Zelda is forced to go to a new school and she quickly becomes the main attention of the school bullies. She is having trouble making friends at school but she doesn’t want to bother her poor grandfather.
When it is Felix’s birthday Zelda goes to great measures to impress her loving grandfather, but has she gone too far? Is it too dangerous? Will the wind change?
One day, the warnings come out, the sirens sound and all that can be heard through the quiet countryside is the loud roar of the enormous fire, destroying everything in its path. Can Felix and Zelda survive again or has their luck run out?
Read Now to find out what happens.
I must admit that reading can be a bit of a chore for me but from the second I opened the book and started reading I couldn’t put it down, just like the other two books in the series (Once & Then). The descriptive writing used to express the feelings of the characters and the setting is tremendous. Now is a great read for anyone aged ten and above but make sure you read the first two books first. I hope you enjoy reading this fabulous book as much as I did!