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Summary: A Great Book for Everyone
Review: Hi, I am in 7th grade, and Milkweed was one of the best books I have ever read! Misha, who is the main character of the book, befriends another boy named Uri, and together they survive in the streets of Warsaw, Poland. Their life would have been fine, but the Holocaust had begun and Misha was forced into a ghetto, where he was crowded together with other orphans, Jews, and gypsies. While in the ghetto many people starved and died. Misha and his friends go through many hardships and injustices, but in the end Misha survives the Holocaust, and at an old age finally finds a true home.
I thought this book was really good, although very sad, and I felt the ending was a little rushed, but all in all I thought that it was a well- written book, and I enjoyed it a great deal. Jerry Spinelli put in enough gruesome, and saddening details about the Holocaust to make you feel sad, but unlike some other Holocaust books they do not make you feel nauseous and queasy. It is definitely the type of book you can't put down, this is probably because of the main character, Misha. Misha is not a very smart boy, and he makes you want to scream in his ear and tell him what to do. As Misha learns about the world around him, you, the reader, also learn about the Holocaust and its cruelties. Because you only learn what Misha learns, you sometimes feel a little held back, but this only makes you want to keep reading even more. Jerry Spinelli also writes the book in an interesting format. He has lots of short, and strange- sized sentences. These, I believe, help give you the real image and feel of the book, although sometimes they do seem a little out of place. Milkweed was a fantastic book, and I recommend it to people of all ages!
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Summary: The Best book made EVER!
Review: his book is probably... the best book Jerry Spinalli has ever MADE! The boy in the story, Misha, Has been through a lot and I mean A LOT! The poor boy has to live with boys that smoke and call him a nasty son of abraham and jew, nasty Jew, dirty, rotten, nasty, smelly JEW.The poor kid has to fend for him self and his is only about 12-14 years old!!! That is tough for a kid for his age and Jerry Spinelli is making a great atmosphere for the readers and bringing out how nasty and Dirty the city of warsaw is. This is the best book to lose your self and just get a great picture of what this kid has to go through and what it would be like to be in this kids shoes. Jerry Spinelli does a great job of making the reader goes lose themselves in one of the greatest book that Jerry Has ever Made!
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Summary: Milkweed Review by Drake
Review: I am a fan of Jerry Spinelli, but not of Milkweed. The book's sensitive subject matter of the holocaust does not make it exempt from criticism. The book seemed to be overly stylized, verging on pretentious. The ending of the book seemed downright lazy to me, and stuck out like a sore from the rest of the plot. To me, Spinelli's strength is his humor. While Milkweed is not entirely without humor, its excessive self-consciousness overshadows its merits.
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Summary: milkweed
Review: I'm so glad that I pulled this book out to read, even with the terrible cover art. It makes sense after reading the book, but I doubt it'll be appealing to children. After a slow beginning, the story does pick up and I was eager to find out what happened to Misha. This is an emotional story, complete with all the terrible details of living in the Warsaw ghetto. But, by focusing on the events seen through Misha's eyes, the reader senses an innocence in Misha that is endearing. Knowing the realities of the Holocaust, I really didn't expect a happy ending, but it is a satisfying one.
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Summary: Heartbreaking yet Hopeful
Review: Jerry Spinelli has crafted a stark and horribly vivid portrayal of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, Poland during WWII.
Through the eyes of a young vagabond we see a childlike view of what it was like to live through this horrific time.
Misha is a young boy who is orphaned and living on the streets. He is told he is a gypsy and given the name Misha, by his friend and protector Uri.
From this point on Misha progresses in his understanding of all that is going on around him... he comes face to face with "Jackboots", Nazi soldiers... "Flops", turncoat Jews tormenting their own people... and those being persecuted-- Jewish people.
The saddness of this story comes through loud and clear when Misha becomes attached to the Jewish family, the Milgorms. Misha befriends, Jainna a young girl and quickly becomes part of the family and embraces his background as a Jew.
I applaud Spinelli for writing this book. I realize there are many books written for middle school students on the Holocaust, but we must never stop reading about it... if we do we may forget just how terrible it really was. And if we, as tolerant caring people forget the horrors, we could easily slip back into the cruelty and utter stupidity of the Nazi tormentors. We must never become like them.... ever!
This is a mistake from history no one should ever repeat!
So as you read this... remember that all people have value and it's our job to make sure we never allow something like the holocaust to happen again.
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Summary: Milkweed
Review: Jerry Spinelli has once again written a powerfully moving story in his latest book, Milkweed. This story about a young, slightly stupid, Jew is well written (even though it's in Dick and Jane style) and powerful. The main character, a boy called Misha, is niave to the destruction and persecution the Holocaust is causing, and doesn't even know his name. I think this story is like Aladin in some ways, because of the poverty and problems, and like the Diary of Anne Frank because of the horrible way they treat the Jews. I reccomend this novel to people who like a good read.
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Summary: Milweed
Review: Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli it is a very good book and I enjoyed it a lot. I love books about the Jews in World War II because it is so interesting. Milkweed is about a little boy who does not know his name. He's called Jew, Gypsy, Stopthief, Runt, Happy, Fast, Misha, and Jack. People just tell him what he should be called. He is an orphan who survives by taking food from people and the markets. One day while he was running a guy named Uri caught him. Uri took him to his buddies that lived in a barn. They were smugglers and would take food from people and markets too. The war started to begin and they were taking all the Jews to the ghetto. All of his friends were Jews and were going to be sent to the ghetto. They tried to hide but the Germans caught and sent them to the ghetto. The Nazi's built a wall around the ghetto and so no one can get out. There is no food to eat, no money, and people are dying from starvation and illnesses.
I really enjoyed this book and did not want it to end. This book made me feel like I was a Jew, and I was going through all of the things that they went through. Like your right by their side watching loved ones die and I couldn't anything about it. It is a really a good book and if you read it I hope you will think the same.
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Summary: A Holocaust Story
Review: Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli was the best, most riveting novel that I have read for a long time. The story is told from the viewpoint of a small, naïve, orphan boy living in Warsaw, Poland during the holocaust. The boy, who adopts the name of Misha, doesn't remember anything of his past. He meets an orphan named Uri who teaches him how to live in the city as a thief. When the Jackboots invade Warsaw, Misha is mistaken as a Jew, and put in the Ghetto. In the Ghetto, Misha lives with his friend Janina's family, who soon adopt him as their own son. When the Jews are finally taken to the camps, Misha escapes. He grows up and moves to America, living with the memories of the injustices done to him and other Jews during the holocaust.
The narrator's point of view, and the choppy, odd way in which it is written sets Milkweed apart from other books. It gives an image of the holocaust that is not normally seen, one where the person is being prejudiced against, and is still optimistic and oblivious to what is going on around him. The book is amazingly powerful, but in a different way than most novels about the holocaust. There are not horrible descriptions of the torture being inflicted on the Jews, leaving the reader sick to their stomach; instead the horrible events of the time are woven into the story along with humor, happiness, optimism, and naiveté. This gives the novel an under the surface seriousness and power, while still being funny and enjoyable to read. Jerry Spinelli doesn't make any attempt to explain what is happening as well, leaving the reader in the same position as Misha. This makes Milkweed somewhat confusing, but more interesting. Milkweed was an enjoyable, powerful, emotion-filled novel, told from a new point of view, and I believe that it is not only Jerry Spinelli's best, but also one of the greatest novels for young adults or for any age.
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Summary: Another classic from Spinelli!
Review: Milkweed is about Misha, an orphan living on the streets of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. The whole story is through his humble eyes as he steals, befriends a group of boys and gets a family. How he always escapes the fearful Flops and Jackboots. How he gets his ear shot. How every night, he enters homes and shops and innocently steals food. How he is sadly separated from his "sister" finally one day. This enchanting story weaves to what happens after the holocaust as well. Milkweed has fascinating details from the Holocaust and Misha's life is described brilliantly. You feel as though you are right there, next to Misha, running beside him as he escapes from the Jackboots, crawling behind him through the two-brick hole in the wall, from beginning to end. The characterizing is done very vividly; you can visualize every character instantly! The style of writing is also so unique and captivating! Once you start this book, it's just too hard to put it down! Milkweed is another classic from the great author of Crash, Loser, Maniac Magee and Stargirl. Two thumbs up!
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Summary: Milkweed- An exceptional novel
Review: Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli, was an interesting and vivid novel about a young boy with many names, whos only memory lies in a yellow stone on a necklace around his neck. The setting of this book, Warsaw in Poland, really describes the terrible conditions all of the people living as a Jew or Gypsy during the Holocaust. The characters are are very different and special in their very own way. Misha, the main character in the story, is timid at the beginning and later is courageous and bold. Uri, who is his companion, is a very quiet and self-centered character. The last thing that really stood out in this book was the writers style. He writes with a very strange format and it is confusing at first, but later becomes stands out in a good way. Overall, the book potrayed the time o the Holocaust through a young boy perfectly and it was one of the best books I have EVER read.
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