Always

Morris Gleitzman's Always is the last of the Felix books, a moving and very hopeful story for 11 year olds about a boy who crosses the world to find the one person who might save his family.

What happens

Wassim is ten. His motto is "stay hopeful", and he needs it. His mum and dad have died, and he lives with his Uncle Otto at Otto's car repair workshop somewhere in Eastern Europe.

Otto is big, grumpy and secretly very gentle. When Wassim skips school, he gets sent to bed with a carrot from under the sink (for basic nutrition). He even built Wassim a bedroom out of plywood with his own hands.

But the Iron Weasels are a gang of football thugs with guns. Otto fixes their cars and stores their stolen goods because he has no choice. Their teenage sons make monkey noises at Wassim because of his brown skin.

Then Wassim finds a secret note from the grandpa he never knew. If he's ever in big trouble, it says, he should find a man called Wilhelm Nowak. A library computer tells him that's the wartime name of Felix Salinger, now an eighty-seven-year-old retired surgeon living in Australia.

Wassim is the most wonderful narrator. He's funny without meaning to be and he tries so hard to look after everyone. He whispers his news to his mum and dad at their grave and brushes the snow off their stone. It's heartbreaking and lovely at the same time.

Later the story switches to Felix himself, old and a bit wobbly, with a dog called Jumble and a weakness for toasted cheese sandwiches. When a boy he's never met turns up at his back door at half past four in the morning, it's clear this is going to be a big adventure for both of them.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Racism is on the page and it's ugly. Wassim is called names like "jungle boy" and is chased by teenage thugs. When he stands up for his uncle, a grown man grabs him by the throat. There's a crude joke, some vodka and plenty of menace. Some readers will find it upsetting, and it's worth reading nearby so you can talk about it.

For a reader who's ready, though, it's a warm, brave book about kindness passing down through families.

What to read next

This is the final book of a long story, though, and Felix's childhood is already behind it. So it isn't the place to begin. Go back to Morris Gleitzman's Once, where Felix is a boy in a Polish orphanage in 1942 and a whole carrot turns up in his soup.