Milkweed
by Jerry Spinelli
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jerry SpinelliEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-13
ISBN: 0440420059
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780440420057
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Milkweed
Book Review: Milkweed
Summary: 5 Stars
Milkweed is the name of an awesome Nutmeg book that I have been reading for the past week. Jerry Spinelli is the talented author that wrote Milkweed. Milkweed takes place in Warsaw and the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland during World War 2 (1939-1945) when the Nazi's (or as they call them in the book Jackboots) invaded Poland.
The main character is this book doesn't have a name or a family and doesn't own any thing except for the yellow stone necklace that he has had since he can remember. He meets up with a bunch of orphans that are Jewish and thieves in Warsaw who assume he is gypsy because of his stone necklace. One of the orphans named Uri takes him in and takes care of him and teaches him how to steal and survive. Then one day Uri decides he needs a name and a story. So Uri gives him the name Misha Pilsudski and says that Misha was born a gypsy somewhere in Russia. His family included 2 great grand fathers a great grandmother who was 109 years old, his father who as a horse trader, his mother who told fortune cards (which told you who were going to marry and how you would die). Misha also had 7 brothers and 5 sisters. They traveled from place to place in 7 wagons pulled by 14 horses. One of the places they came to was Poland where they were bombed by a Nazi airplane. They saw the bomb coming so they scattered in 7 different directions. Misha scattered away with his parents. Misha's parents were tied up by Polish farmers and kept Misha as a slave. Eventually Misha did run away in Uri's story to Warsaw where Uri taught him how to survive. One day while Misha was stealing from a garden he meets a little girl named Janina who is the only person that he has ever meet that as smaller than him. Misha and Janina become very close friends and when they move into the Ghetto Misha becomes apart of her family.
Misha sees all the Jews marching out of the city like a parade. (Misha loves parades) When he sees Janina he decides to march with her and her family. Misha and Janina's family keep marching until they are in the Warsaw ghetto. Where the Jackboots are slowly starving them in the ghetto. After Misha is accepted to Janina's family he decides to take matters into his own hands and find food for his new family.
My favorite part in this book was when Misha was invited to Janina's party. (Before they were in the ghetto) This part was funny because Misha cannot tell time so he got there very late and Janina would not start the party with out him so some of her guests had already left. When they sat down to eat cake Janina's father lit the birthday candles on the cake and Misha thought that they were lighting the cake on fire. So he grabbed the cake and ran all the way home. When he told Uri what happened all Uri could do was laugh.
I would give this book 5 stars, because Jerry Spinelli describes everything with lots of detail. It is also a very interesting plot. I would defiantly recommend this book to everyone
Summary of Milkweed
He?s a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham.He?s a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He?s a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He?s a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels. He?s a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he?s a boy who realizes it?s safest of all to be nobody.
Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli takes us to one of the most devastating settings imaginable?Nazi-occupied Warsaw of World War II?and tells a tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young orphan.
From the Hardcover edition.
Newbery Medal-winning author Jerry Spinelli (Maniac McGee, Stargirl) paints a vivid picture of the streets of the Nazi-occupied Warsaw during World War II, as seen through the eyes of a curious, kind, heartbreakingly naïve orphan with many names. His name is Stopthief when people shout "Stop! Thief!" as he flees with stolen bread. Or it's Jew, "filthy son of Abraham," depending on who's talking to him. Or, maybe he's a Gypsy, because his eyes are black, his skin is dark, and he wears a mysterious yellow stone around his neck. His new friend and protector Uri forces him to take the name Misha Pilsudski and to memorize a made-up story about his Gypsy background so that no one will mistake him for a Jew and kill him. Misha, a very young boy, is slow to understand what's happening around him. When he sees people running, he thinks it's a race. Nazis (Jackboots, as the children call them) marching through the streets appear to him as a delightful parade of magnificent boots. He wants to be a Jackboot! (Uri smacks him for saying this.) He compares bombs to sauerkraut kettles, machine guns to praying mantises, and tanks to "colossal gray long-snouted beetles." The story of Misha and his band of orphans trying to survive on their own would have a deliciously Dickensian quality, if it weren't for the devastation around them--people hurrying to dig trenches to stop Nazi tanks, shops exploding in flames, the wailing of sirens, buzzing airplanes, bombs, and human torture. Spinelli has written a powerfully moving story of survival--readers will love Misha the dreamer and his wonderfully poetic observations of the world around him, his instinct to befriend a Jewish girl and her family, his impulse to steal food for a local orphanage and his friends in the ghetto, and his ability to delight in small things even surrounded by the horror of the Holocaust. A remarkable achievement. (Ages 11 and older) --Karin Snelson
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