Milkweed

Review by Erica Morino
Milkweed tells about a young boy who called himself by many names and lives in the streets of Warsaw. Also has a family of his own and he’s like a believer. He’s a thief, but only wants to survive and he meets up with other boys who also live in the streets. One of the boys that he met was becoming close friend. He wanted to be like the Jackboots, which are the Nazis till one day something had changed his mind of not being a Nazis.

This book shows how it was like living in the streets when buildings are fallen and many soldiers are dead on the road and people are just stealing stuff from shops and rich people during World War II in Poland.

Some parts of the reading were really hard to understand, have to stop for a while go back to read a sentence over again just to get the idea what’s going on, or seeing a word that you might not know. I wanted to know what would happen to him and the others boys that had made friends with on the streets and his family. It wasn’t really that good when I started reading, however, there were some parts in the book that surprised me. Some parts were good and some not so much. But it’s heartbroken.

It’s good for the people who are interested, likes to learn about World War II, or learn about their lives. This could be good for any high school students and any middle school students who are advanced. This writing is pretty difficult, but not as much once you get use of it. = Reviewed by Chris Jeung = Milkweed is the story of a boy named Misha who endures horrible things. Misha is a young boy around the age of eight and witnesses many deaths and the brutality of the Nazis. This novel tells the story of a boy living in the ghetto and how he became a new person. During World War 2 many kids were orphaned and there was constant hunger that the people had to endure. Having no food or money Misha turns to a life of stealing and learns to be opportunistic. This book shows what it was like for people, young and old, in the ghetto and tells the story of how they survive. The Jews were in the streets dropping dead just to be stolen from and eaten by scavengers. As we saw in the movies, people were just thrown into carts to be buried in these mass-graves the Nazis had built. In Night by Elie Wiesel most people lost their faith in God, but in Milkweed it is the loss of angels. This book is a very serious and sad book, but it is funny in a bad way at times. Misha goes through tough times and learns to smuggle food into the ghetto. He learns that he must help his friends, other orphans, and a very nice family that he meets and becomes a part of. At times it is tough to read because it got confusing, but it was a good book. It took me a long time to read the first half of the book, but the end was easy to read. The hardest part to read is at the end of the book. Overall it was a great book and would make a great movie. This book is good for the people who like a storyline and don’t mind reading through some sad sections of a book. Even though this novel is a work of fiction I think it is pretty accurate on how life would have been.

=Reviewed by Marcus He=

Marcus He   4/10/08 Ms.Orner Milkweed Wikipedia Page

“//Death was as familiar to us as life. Even those still breathing, Walking-thy looked as if they were waiting for someone to tell them they were dead//”(Spinelli 146). Milkweed is a story of a man’s childhood during the holocaust. As a little boy, he was unnamed and parentless. He survived by being a thief and stealing from people. One day he meets another thief named Uri, an older boy, and he is given the name Misha Pilsudski. Both boys survive by stealing together and looking out for one another. Germans or “jackboots” begin to transport the Jews to the ghettos. Misha moves in the ghetto with Jania Milgram, a girl that he met, and her family. Misha and Jania would help their family live through smuggling food from outside of the ghetto. Later on, Jania gets captured while Misha gets shot and injured and left in a ditch. Misha ends up living with a farmer for three years until the war was over. He made money through selling stolen goods. Once he made enough money, he bought a ticket to America. In America, he constantly loses his job due to his crazy ranting about the war. He marries women and has a child but later on divorces. His daughter eventually gets reunited with him. Milkweed relates to what we are learning (World War II) because it involves the Holocaust. This book shows us what the Nazis did to the Jews and all the horrendous events that made up the Holocaust. The book was fairly easy to read. It was educational yet it was a page-turner. It shows people what pain the Jewish people had to live through while having an exciting story line to draw people in. The book was not slow but at the right pace. It is an excellent book for people who like reading historical fiction. For audiences of all ages