Milkweed (edit title)

Jordan L. Schorr edited the summary of Milkweed Tuesday, November 10 2009.

• In the beginning of this book, Milkweed, a boy named Stopthief. He didn’t know what his religion was and he was found by a man named Uri. Uri was a big man and smuggled food just like Stopthief. He took him in at his house which was a barber shop. He gave Stopthief a bath, a hair cut and a new name, Misha was what he was called. Misha was a wild boy and went out and found a caressel and wanted to ride it so bad. Then one day, there was a rucuss, a horse was gone from the caressel. The Jews got blamed and one got hung. When the ghetto was built all the Jews were taken into the ghetto and had to stay there. They had nothing but what they had brought with them. The ghetto was a sad place to live because the guards would hit you with their clubs if they say you doing something you shouldn’t. Misha and Janina had found a hole in the wall, and snuck out every night to smuggle food from the places that had food. Then, out of no where, Janina’s mother passed away. After that, the trains started coming everyone got worried, but there was a man talking about “candy mountain”. Janina LOVED trains and watched them every night. One after one the Jews boarded the trains and were gone. Until one day, the trains came again, but this time it was Misha’s and his families floor. Misha’s father had told them the night before, to run and keep running an never stop. But Janina wouldn’t leave, she wanted to go on the trains. Next thing you know, Misha was chasing after Janina in the crowd, she was trying to find her father. But Uri had started to fire his gun at him, he almost got hit by one of the bullets. After that insedent, Misha started looking for where the trains where heading. He started to work on a farm when a lady came up to him and asked where he was going and told him the new law. The war ended 4 years later and Misha didn’t know what to do with himself. He started selling stuff, but that didn’t work. He started telling stories about what he went through and that is how he met his wife he would have for 5 months. After she decided she wasn’t in love with him anymore, she kicked him out. But he noticed her stomach and asked if she was pregnant. Later on in his life he was working in a store and a little girl and a woman came to him and asked him what his name is. He told him and it turned out that it was his daughter and granddaughter. She hadn’t given her a middle name because she wanted her father to choose it. He chose Janina. Back at his daughters house, he asked if he could plant a milkweed in the back yard She went right out, and got one. Just for her daddy.

Claudia R edited the quotations of Milkweed Tuesday, September 15 2009.

• Added a quotation: “"I think of all the voices that have told me who I have been, the neames I've had... I was. Now I am. I am . . . Poppynoodle."”Misha

Shelfari edited the description of Milkweed Friday, July 31 2009.

• 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

Shelfari edited the contributors of Milkweed Wednesday, July 22 2009.

• Added a contributor: Jerry Spinelli: (Primary Author)

Shelfari edited the first sentence of Milkweed Friday, July 17 2009.

• I am running.