Yoram Gross' recollections of his life, told simply and directly, cannot be read without emotion. This is the story of a youth who was forced to grow up during the Nazi occupation of his country, Poland. Although he saw death all around him, he reached out to life. Although he had to lie, he reached out to truth. Although surrounded by evil, he reached out to goodness. Despite the surrounding horrors, the book is surprisingly cheerful. How it was possible for the author to carry from this wartime hell an enduring faith in humanity is his great personal victory. It is living holocaust history, delivered lightly, with veracity and deep feeling. The apparent simplicity of the telling belies immense complexity. The book also recounts his life in Australia as an animator of such film classics as Blinky Bill and Dot and the Kangaroo.