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Spinelli, Jerry.
MILKWEED
New York : Knopf, 2003.
IL YA
ISBN 0375913742

(2 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

He's a young boy with nothing to lose.  Not even a name.  He's called Stop Thief, runt, fast.  He's just living day to day until he meets Uri.  Uri is an orphan who takes the young boy under his wing and gives him a name and a made up history.  He is now Misha and he steals to feed himself and his new friends.  Life is certainly not easy in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation.  And certainly not if you are a Jew.  Misha knows nothing of politics or war or oppression so he doesn't know to be afraid of the Jackboots.  He has nothing to lose and no way of knowing what life has to offer beyond his own point of reference.

Booktalk #2

                    “I am running. This is the first thing I remember. Running . I carry something, my arm curled around it, hugging it to my chest. Bread, of course. Someone is chasing me. Stop! Thief! I run. People. Shoulders. Shoes. Stop! Thief!.  (Excerpt from the story’s first two paragraphs on page 1.)
                    Meet Misha, a young male orphan living on the streets of Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, who knows nothing of his past but a memory that lies in a yellow stone on a necklace around his neck. He meets another orphan named Uri, who gives him the name Misha and teaches him how to live on the streets as a thief. Misha is very innocent and naïve and he sees the “Jackboots” (German soldiers) as being something wonderful. He thinks that as the Jackboots parade through the city that this is a spectacular event; but Uri scolds him for wanting to befriend the German soldiers. Different horrific actions displayed by these German soldiers that are witnessed by Misha lead him to slowly understand that being a Jew is very dangerous. Misha is forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto with other orphans, Jews, and Gypsies. People in the Ghetto are starving and dying and Misha is forced to face the atrocities of war and to realize the hate of the Germans for innocent people. In the Ghetto, Misha lives with his friend Janina’s family, who come to think of him as a son. Can Misha continually escape from the Jackboots? Read Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli to discover how Misha gets his ear shot, discover how Misha secretly enters homes and steals food, and discovers as Misha takes risks if he survives the violence of the Holocaust.  (Becky Proctor,  jonseyreeves@aol.com, school librarian at Dorchester Academy, St. George, SC)                    “I am running. This is the first thing I remember. Running . I carry something, my arm curled around it, hugging it to my chest. Bread, of course. Someone is chasing me. Stop! Thief! I run. People. Shoulders. Shoes. Stop! Thief!.  (Excerpt from the story’s first two paragraphs on page 1.)
                    Meet Misha, a young male orphan living on the streets of Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, who knows nothing of his past but a memory that lies in a yellow stone on a necklace around his neck. He meets another orphan named Uri, who gives him the name Misha and teaches him how to live on the streets as a thief. Misha is very innocent and naïve and he sees the “Jackboots” (German soldiers) as being something wonderful. He thinks that as the Jackboots parade through the city that this is a spectacular event; but Uri scolds him for wanting to befriend the German soldiers. Different horrific actions displayed by these German soldiers that are witnessed by Misha lead him to slowly understand that being a Jew is very dangerous. Misha is forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto with other orphans, Jews, and Gypsies. People in the Ghetto are starving and dying and Misha is forced to face the atrocities of war and to realize the hate of the Germans for innocent people. In the Ghetto, Misha lives with his friend Janina’s family, who come to think of him as a son. Can Misha continually escape from the Jackboots? Read Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli to discover how Misha gets his ear shot, discover how Misha secretly enters homes and steals food, and discovers as Misha takes risks if he survives the violence of the Holocaust.  (Becky Proctor,  jonseyreeves@aol.com, school librarian at Dorchester Academy, St. George, SC)

SUBJECTS:     Boys -- Fiction.
                        Jews -- Poland -- Fiction.
                        Warsaw (Poland) -- Fiction.
                        Holocaust, 1933-1945 -- Fiction.
                        World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland -- Fiction.
                        Historical fiction.

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