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These are poems of frequent swerves and transformations, in dialogue with science, geography, art, and aesthetics Our Books. A new series of world literature Seedbank Learn More. All Books. Young Readers. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. Filthy son of Abraham. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. 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. Get A Copy. Paperback , pages. Published September 13th by Laurel Leaf first published September 9th More Details Original Title. Poland Warsaw Poland. Field Award for Fiction Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Milkweed , please sign up.
You are either 1. I love Jerry Spinelli's work and I find stories about the holocaust fascinating, but the more reviews I read it makes me wonder if the book is worth the read? DM I liked this more than I expected to.
See all 13 questions about Milkweed…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Rating details. Sort order. Start your review of Milkweed. I initially read this book to determine whether it was appropriate for my 11 year-old daughter to read.
Although it is considered a YA novel, any book fiction or non-fiction with a theme centered around the holocaust, is a novel I want to preview before allowing my child to absorb.
I was immediately drawn to the short sentence structure and quick action. From the beginning, the reader is drawn into an eight year-old orphan boy's innocent view of a world where he must steal, and become virtually I initially read this book to determine whether it was appropriate for my 11 year-old daughter to read. From the beginning, the reader is drawn into an eight year-old orphan boy's innocent view of a world where he must steal, and become virtually invisible, to survive. It's a quick read; I read it in one day.
It is the boy's innocent and honest view of the world around him during one of the most horrific times in history that kept me turning the pages. The boy's innocence and naivete to the chaos and pure hatred surrounding him is touching, and rather humorous at times.
Although Milkweed is a work of fiction, it made me wonder how close it came to the inner workings of a child's mind during this time period. While the central theme revolves around the time leading up to the holocaust, it only takes the reader through the time when Jews were relocated out of their homes to the ghetto. It touches briefly on the time of deportation, when those housed in ghettos were put on trains for human shipment to concentration camps.
However, it never visits the horrors of an actual concentration camp. Some of the prevalent messages that stood out for me in Milkweed were those of hope, love and inner happiness at a time when Nazi occupation colored the world gray with irrational hatred and unfair brutality. I found myself lingering with thoughts of the book long after I read the final page. After reading Milkweed, I would allow my daughter to read it. I think I would rather read it with her though, so if she had any thoughts or questions we could talk about it along the way.
View all 5 comments. I'm drawn to the stories of the people - I want to know what it is in us that makes us so cruel to others. I'm fascinated by people's stories- real or fiction. I don't think that they should be ignored or forgotten, and acknowledging them makes me more thankful for the good things that I have in my life. Milkweed is a story of an orphan in s Poland who knows nothing but survival. Not who he is, who other people are, nothing of the world around him.
He knows only that he is small and fast and able to snatch food right from under the noses of the people it belongs to. He is eventually taken in by a gang of orphan kids, and becomes the special ward of one in particular, Uri. I really loved Uri's character. He's generous, kind, wise beyond his years, in tune with the world around him, and street smart.
He teaches, or tries to teach our main character orphan who he later names Misha , about life and how to keep it. His character is almost that of a mentor, or older brother to clean-slate Misha, and I loved that he was stern with Misha when Misha obliviously ran dangerous risks that would endanger both Uri's and Misha's lives. He makes sure that when they have a surplus of food, that other orphans receive it.
When Misha ends up branded as a Jew and living in a ghetto in Warsaw, the tables turn a bit and he begins to act the "older brother" role for a young girl named Janina. Janina's family was once wealthy and well-to-do, and living in the ghetto is a hard adjustment for her. Her father, Tobiasz, takes in Misha as one of the family, and Misha smuggles food in from outside the ghetto to help feed the family, and a house of orphans in the care of another man.
Janina takes to following Misha on these trips, which is frustrating to me as a reader, because she's the epitome of a spoiled brat. She refuses to do what she's told, or to stay inconspicuous. She willfully causes a scene to get her way, and refuses to accept that her situation has changed.
I could not understand why Misha stuck by her. I understand that he now considered her and Tobiasz as his family, but I'd have probably beat her to a pulp in that situation. Her father is a kind man, and next to Uri, the only character that I cared for. He tries to make sure that his daughter is safely away from the ghetto when he finds out that they are being "resettled" elsewhere - a concentration camp - but she stubbornly and selfishly refuses.
I couldn't stand the little brat. It's hard for me to enjoy a story where so much focus is put on stupid or annoying characters that I cannot relate to. Every decision that Misha or Janina made was contrary to the one that I'd have made in their place. Janina ended up right where I thought she would in the end, but until then, every time that she wasn't caught by the patrols, it was unrealistic and aggravating, because she was essentially doing everything she could to be caught, and just got insanely lucky time after time.
On top of that, I felt like the writing was just I don't know how to describe it, but it felt simplistic to me, even for a YA book. But at the same time, it felt like it was supposed to be imparting some great truths, and while there were a few good quotes, I didn't think that there was anything especially profound here. So, this was OK. Not anywhere close to the best book I've read on this subject, but not terrible. I just expected a bit more, I think. View all 24 comments. This is the first Jerry Spinelli book that I have read.
I bought Stargirl at the same time and after reading Milkweed I am excited to start reading Stargirl. Spinelli does well to portray the voice of a young orphan boy in Warsaw. There are a lot of reviews about this and the book "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" that say that it is unbelievable that there were children that did not know what was going on around them.
I really disagree with these statements. I have taught 5th graders and 6th gra This is the first Jerry Spinelli book that I have read. I have taught 5th graders and 6th graders that had no idea that we are at war with Iraq. So I do not, personally, find it hard to believe that this innocence or lack of knowledge occured even during the WWII Era with the Jews.
This was a great book about friendship and the importance of families, no matter who they are make up of. I think that it also shows us the importance of belonging. Misha really didn't care about what group: thieves, orphans, Jews, Jackboots, he belonged in, he just wanted to belong. View all 9 comments.
Oct 13, Catherine rated it did not like it Shelves: young-adult , world-war-two. I love both Maniac Magee and Stargirl, but this book left me cold. I found it unbelievable. I didn't really care about the characters.
Spinelli is usually good to pull me into the story, but this story just made me feel yucky. I didn't get the whole "Candy man" in the Ghetto. Where did he come from. In every story I've ever read about the Holocaust the children and adults are always afraid of the soldiers. I found the idea of the Misha and Janina taunting the Mint man annoying. It wouldn't hav I love both Maniac Magee and Stargirl, but this book left me cold.
It wouldn't have happened that way. I found the story annoying and trite. I expect better from Spinelli. Edited to Add: I think I figured out why this story bothers me so much. Spinelli tells of a boy who is fast, smart, and lucky enough to escape the Nazis. This story feeds into the fact that victims need to be better, stronger, faster, more clever, etc - and if they are, they can outsmart their abusers.
I feel that stories like this perpetuate the myth that the victim is responsible for their own escape from abuse. This story is why so many who have not been abused or in horrible situations say things like, "Well, why didn't they just walk away. Why didn't they tell someone. This story asks the questions: "Misha was able to walk away from the Ghetto - why didn't all those other Jews just walk away from the Ghetto?
Why didn't all those other Jews steal food so they didn't starve to death? They should have been as smart as Misha who is fictional. Now that I've identified why I don't like this book, I feel better. View all 6 comments. I loved, loved this book. It was so well written and I completely fell in love with the characters.
I wanted to leap through the pages and save them all. He writes youth fiction and is always age appropriate. I wish I had come across this particular book when I used to read to my boys. It would have brought about a great discussion that would surely have give I loved, loved this book. It would have brought about a great discussion that would surely have given them food for thought regarding WWII and the lives of children.
I give this book 5 stars for many reasons: It was well written, it was age appropriate, it had a great message, it kept me interested, and the author nailed the basic nature of humans in each character, whether good or bad. I usually never read reviews before I have written my own. It wasn't meant to be the best book ever written on WWII or the holocaust. I think Spinelli accomplished the telling of this awful time in history in a manner in which kids would understand and even sympathize with, without scaring them for life.
And I think that is saying a lot, especially when I consider some the inappropriate books my kids have been given to read over the years. Just sayin'! Feb 10, Laura rated it really liked it Shelves: wwii , on-laptop , on-dj , ya , library-request , , toppler-finished-read , lib-has-audio , library , favorite-authors. What a powerful book. However, as we read today's headlines, and we see people, many of whom are in positions of great power, vilifying all Muslims because some are extremist terrorists, honestly the extremist "Christians" running America right now are a whole lot scarier.
Let's hope justice catches up to them, and soon. WWII in Poland, young and old starving, doing what they have to do to survive, thousands of Jews being imprisoned, massacred: This book brought that whole horrible time up close and personal.
I lost myself completely in this world, and as brutal as it was, there were glimmers of hope in the kindness of men and women who risked punishment, even death, to stand up for what was right. This is a book that will stay with me forever. A powerful read, and a beautifully performed audiobook, as well. Mar 05, littlemiao rated it did not like it Shelves: ww2-holocaust , overdrive-audio. Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli, is another disappointing addition to recent Holocaust fiction which has made its way into classrooms, displacing more worthwhile and significant works of fiction and non-fiction.
Perhaps that makes me resent it a little more than it deserves. The author means well. The author tried. I gave the book 1. The two do share at least a few notable similarities. They won enough critical attention to become integrated into school curricula. The authors profess no personal connections to the Holocaust. And the protagonists of both books are young boys completely oblivious to their social contexts.
Strangely enough, neither protagonist knows what a Jew is at the start of their story. Milkweed, told from the perspective of a young orphan growing up on the streets in Warsaw and later in the Warsaw ghetto, has all the ingredients for a thought-provoking exploration of what would be challenging and important themes for readers for any age.
It should be a story with great symbolism and significance. It should be tragic, moving, haunting. Indeed, the author loads the story with symbols - stone angels and milkweed pods being the most obvious - and does not sugarcoat the grimness of the setting. It has potential. But the book is incredible in the most unfavorable sense of the term. Weighty symbolism and a tragic setting are not enough to carry a story. The author is, to an extent, faithful to history. It was a brutal time and he does not shy away from the brutality.
In fact, he shows us little else. Without outside knowledge, the reader would be ignorant that Warsaw was a vibrant center of Jewish life before the war. But that reality is also a crucial element to understanding the Warsaw setting. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising barely earns a mention - it happens after the narrator escapes the city. The Jews in the ghetto come across as hardly more than doomed husks of humanity.
But the narrator is different. He is not a Jew - that is one of the few things he knows about himself. He knows he is a Gypsy, though he has no concept of growing up as a member of a marginalized and stigmatized group.
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