It is his experiences throughout his childhood of helping assist doctors that made him a well known doctor in his adult life. Once again he is an assistant to the doctor. Gabriek is injured and so Felix takes him back into the woods to get help. When they return to the farm it is on fire. He soon learns that Gabriek is not in danger. He assumes they are Nazis and are going to kill Gabriek and he yells to give Gabriek a chance to escape. On his thirteenth birthday Felix can hear people above him talking. Gabriek if part of a resistance movement and has continued to hide Felix in a hole in his barn. Gabriek, whose wife was hiding young Felix and Zelda are dead. We go back in time to catch up with what had happened to Felix. The things that happen to Felix and Felix’s actions and reactions are consistent with the memoirs and histories I’ve read. I don’t get that feeling from this series. It’s hard for me to shake the feeling that the author is manipulating my emotions. While I’ve read many Holocaust memoirs and biographies, I seldom read Holocaust fiction. How did Felix survive? What happened to his parents? This book answered many of my questions. As a reader, I longed to know what happened After. I realized this when I reached the end of Then, and I’m glad the author listened to Felix. The author originally intended for this series to be a trilogy, but he discovered that Felix had more to say. Felix must join the partisans in order to survive. As it turns out, the strangers are Polish partisans fighting against the Nazis. They appear to have kidnapped Gabriek, and Felix is determined to help him. When he hears Gabriek arguing with several strangers in the barn above him, Felix secretly follows the group when they leave. It’s Felix’s thirteenth birthday, and everything changes.

As the next chapter in his story unfolds, Felix has been hiding for 2 ½ years in a hole in the horse’s stall in Gabriek’s barn.

After book by morris gleitzman