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| | Milkweed |  | Creator: Ron Rifkin
Publisher: Listening Library
Category: Book
Buy Used: $598.78
Avg. Customer Rating:  90 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 3
Pages: 224
ISBN: 0307281485
EAN: 9780307281487
ASIN: 0307281485
Publication Date: January 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
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 naive 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
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 85 more reviews...
 Departure from typical Spinelli a Must Read January 7, 2009
Milkweed is a departure from Spinelli's usual works. Unlike his other, more fanciful novels, Milkweed seriously examines issues during the Holocaust through the eyes of a child. As a teacher, I would not recommend this book for students younger than high school for several reasons. First, it requires readers to have a significant amount of prior knowledge about the holocaust. Second, it is intense to read, with an ending that might be difficult to comprehend by less mature middle schoolers. Finally, it requires the reader to make quite a few inferences concerning difficult moral issues.
More mature readers will gain new insights into a tragic period in human history. I definitely think this is one of the best books Spinelli has written--just not for kids. It is one of the few books for teens that I have read that I can honestly say has changed me. The ending, in particular, rings true to life.
 Mr. Steven's Honors U.S. History Book Report Review January 6, 2009
Milkweed is the story of a young boy who lives on the streets of Warsaw and has no name, family or background. He goes by many names, such as Jew, Gypsy, Stopthief, or even a filthy son of Abraham. This boy does everything he can to survive, whether it be stealing food, sleeping in the streets, and living a fast paced life so that he doesn't get caught. Each night he sleeps in a cellar with many boys just like him and he hides from the Jackboots, or the Nazis. In Warsaw, Polland during the year 1939, the Jackboots were in control. The little boy along with his friends are inferior compared to the strong and powerful Jackboots, so the best thing that they can do is stay invisible. Later on in the story, the boy finds his real name is Mischa and that he was a gypsy with his family until his home and family was bombed by the Jackboots. Mischa finds out all of this information from his dear friend Uri, the leader of his street gang. When Mischa sees a familiar person led into a Warsaw ghetto with her family, he follows her and thus embarks on a wonderful journey.
This book is a great example of how the individual changes the times. Obviously, as World War One is around the corner, the time period set in this novel is very rough. It is set right in the middle of the Holocaust and millions of minority groups are being severely mistreated. In Warsaw, Mischa follows a girl named Janina Milgrom and her family as they are led into a ghetto and proceeds to help their family. He smuggles food for people in the ghettos and tries to help Janina escape when her family is relocated to concentration camps. Although the time period of the book is sad and depressing, Mischa is optimistic and embraces the happiness in life. For example, Mischa takes the hard-boiled egg as a miracle while Janina is only happy for the food. He shapes the times by taking the bad things in life and turning them into good, just by his perspective.
Amazing, insightful, chilling August 22, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this book, the Nazi invasion of Poland is seen through the eyes of a small homeless vagabond of a child, a child who is both too naive to understand properly what is going on around him, yet also more street-smart and much better at surviving the hard life than the adults around him.
I found this book refreshingly unique, intelligently written, and compelling too - in fact, I found it so impossible to put down that I ended up staying up most of the night to finish it. However, it is a very realistically written book, and none of the harshness of war is sugar-coated, so I would not recommend letting young children read it. Also, kids might need to ask a few background questions about World War 2 so that they can understand fully what the story is about, and they're probably going to need the holocaust and the Nazi death camps explained to them as well...and I myself would definitely not enjoy having to explain that to young children, especially not when it comes to the "But WHY would the Nazis do something so horrible like that?" part. Still, let's just hope that if our future generations learn about this sort of stuff, they can stop anything like it from happening again.
Milkweed August 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys WWII and holocaust books.
This story is about a boy. A boy who has no name, no family, no home. This boy is taken from place to place ripped from new friends and put into the hands of enemies. Put in jail cells one day, then living in the homes of strangers the next. It's always hard to find food, always a struggle to keep warm. He meets new people, and his told who he is countless times. He is called thief, Gypsy, Jew. He was called Misha. He is called one-eared Jack.
This book is all about this boy finding who he is. Bad things may happen, but that doesn't change who you are. This boy finally found who he is. After years and years of hurt and pain, hunger and thirst, friends and enemies, he knows who he is. He is... Poppynoodle.
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli April 25, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great book. The way Jerry Spinelli developes the character, Misha Piludski, and makes it so that you really get a feel of what it was like to be Jewish during the Holocaust. This book is one of the best books i have ever read. It leads you through the story of a boy that with a little help will make it a long way. And learn to make with what he has. To be smart. And to care for others. Overall this is a great book for people looking for a page turner. The plot and the characters are so great that anyone who like historical fiction will like this book. You have to read this book!
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