Milkweed (novel)

Milkweed

File:Milkweed cover.gif
Author	Jerry Spinelli
Translator	pat
Language	English
Genre	Young adult, Historical novel
Publisher	HarperTrophy
Publication date	2003
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	208 pp + Question and answer by the author (only in the special edition)

Milkweed is a 2003 historical fiction novel by American author Jerry Spinelli. The book is about an orphaned boy without a name living in Warsaw, Poland in the years of World War II during the Holocaust. Over time, he learns that he is a Gypsy but he is taken in by a Jewish group of orphans, so he must avoid the German troops (or "Jackboots") while living off the streets with other orphans that he runs into. The story's narrator is actually the boy in the future living in America recalling his past experiences. Despite being a historical fiction novel, Doctor Korczak, a minor character in the story is based on a real person called Janusz Korczak.

Plot summary

The book is set in the year 1939, (with it later extending into modern times) during the early years of World War II in Warsaw, Poland, with the Holocaust being at its full force.

A boy by the name of "Stopthief" is doing everything he can to survive, stealing from bakeries, grocery stores, and pickpocketing wealthy people throughout the streets of Warsaw. He runs into a red-haired man named Uri, an orphaned Jew who is living in the basement of an abandoned barbershop. Uri tells the boy that he must not run into trouble, especially with the German troops patrolling the streets. He creates a false identity for him, naming him Misha Pilsudski, and telling him that he is a Gypsy from a large family originally from Russia. Misha then meets a girl named Janina after he steals some food from her family's garden, who he befriends.

Misha also learns about an orphanage of abandoned Jewish children and meets its owner Doctor Korczak. He starts to bring food for Doctor Korczak and the orphans

Many of the Jews in the city were then taken to a Jewish Ghetto. The living conditions in the city were also quite bad, especially for the many orphans wandering the street. In the Ghetto, Janina's mother dies of typhus.

Misha has found a way to escape from the ghetto, through a space in the wall where two bricks are missing. He brings Janina's family food this way, endears himself to them and becomes more-or-less one of them. He really begins to count himself as one of them after Janina's mother dies of typhus and he is invited to join in the Hanukkah celebration with her family. Janina and Misha consider themselves brother and sister and Janina's father treats Misha like a son.

Soon the Germans begin to "resettle" everyone in the ghettos when they are actually deporting them. Many people believe they are taking them somewhere else to live in peace. One day Uri finds Misha in the ghetto, Uri is not residing in the ghetto because he has red hair and therefore does not seem to be a Jew. Uri warns Misha about the deportations, ordering him to run and never stop. Misha, in turn, warns the other orphan boys, many of whom do not believe him and do not heed his warning.

The deportations begin, street by street, and Janina's father urges Misha to take Janina and run before their family is deported. He tries, but Janina will not go, forcing him to return every night with her. When she sees her family has been deported one night, Janina panics and runs to the station to look for them. She is thrown into one of the boxcars and Misha, trying to reach her, is shot by Uri in the ear, who had disguised himself as a jackboot in order to save Misha.

He spends three years working for a farmer who found him asleep on the train tracks and who nursed him back to health. He leaves after the war ends and ends up traveling to America under his new name, Jack. There he becomes a "street-corner talker"- He talks about his life and experiences he has been through in his life, standing on corners and spilling his stories to the crowds that walk by.

It is here that he meets his wife, Vivian. She leaves him five months after their marriage, pregnant and tired of his strange habits. Years later, his twenty-five-year-old daughter finds him working in a grocery store. After confirming that he is her father, she asks him to give her four-year-old daughter Wendy a middle name. Without a hesitation, Misha chooses the name Janina. The story ends with him living peacefully with his daughter and granddaughter in their home, with his new name "Poppynoodle" by Wendy Janina.

Minor characters

Tobiasz Milgrom - Eric Marcus- he is a little jew boy stuck in the middle of summer school during the Holocast, and his sister is a complete spoiled bitch and she thinks that she is hot shit but she isnt. Eric likes to wave to random peolpe even to the nazis

Janina 's father, and later Misha's adopted father. He works as a pharmacist.

Mrs. Milgrom - Her first name is never revealed. She is known for telling Misha that she is "Not his Mother" when he has tried to call her by that name. She dies of typhus on her mattress in the corner of their apartment.

Uncle Shepsel - Another member of Janina's family. He lives with them in the ghetto but states that he is now Lutheran, by reading a Lutheran book and believes that they will let him out of the ghetto now.

Dr. Korczak - Owner of the orphans home.

Olek - One of the orphan children who is Friends with Misha and Uri. He is known for having only one arm, which was run over by a train. He is found hanged from a streetlight with a sign reading "I am a smuggler" around his neck.

Kuba - Another friend of Misha and Uri. He is known for being the clown of the group. Near the end of the book, he disappears with some of the other boys.

Ferdi - The Smokeblower. He is known for always having a cigar. He does not believe in Mothers, or Oranges. Much like Kuba, he disappears later on as well.

Enos - is also called Grim-Faced Enos, because he never smiles and is always serious. He does not believe in angels. He too disappears nearing the end of the book.

Jon - All through the book Jon is known for being Gray. He is sick and dying and as Enos put it, "He is dying and he doesn't even know it!". Shortly after being locked in the ghetto, Jon is found dead on the sidewalk. Uri takes his shoes and gives them to Big Henryk.

Big Henryk - All though there is never a definite age for him, he is most likely around the same age as the other boys. Big Henryk suffers from being mentally handicapped. He is given Jon's shoes when he dies and shows a general distaste for them. When he is asked a question he would always answer yes. He is the last of the group to disappear near the end of the book, seen clumping after the Piper.

The Tootler (AKA The Piper) - a man in only pants who skips through the ghetto telling children to follow him to see "Candy Mountain".

Buffo - A Flop, a Jew who acts as a police officer who "disciplines" the Jews in the ghetto. He is mainly known for smelling like mint and killing mainly children, by suffocating them in his fat belly. Janina is known to egg him on by calling him "Fatman", because Misha did first.

Awards

• The Golden Kite Award winner
• An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
• A National Jewish Book Award Finalist
• A Booklist Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth Selection
• A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
• A Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice
• A Book Links Lasting Connections Selection
• Winner of the Carolyn W. Field Award from the Pennsylvania Library Association

See also

• Janusz Korczak