Jonscot Dowland

The book Milkweed was written by Jerry Spinelli. It is set in Warsaw, Poland during the Holocaust. The story follows a young boy named Misha whose name will change throughout the book. It takes you through the whole Holocaust, from beginning to the end. The story is told from Misha’s point of view in the future when he is an old man living in America talking about his past experiences. Misha is an orphan, living on the streets, as the book starts out.  Misha meets a band of thieves and one of them becomes a friend. His name is Uri. At first, their relationship is carefree and they just steal together. But later they become much closer. There is one day when they are robbing a store for food, when suddenly they come across a jackboot (German invaders capturing Poland). Misha describes these jackboots in great detail in the book. He goes  into how magnificent they are and how powerful they seem to be with their big shiny boots and badges. He envies these soldiers and states that he would love to be one some day. However, even then he knows he must be cautious around the Nazis. Once the Nazis have captured Poland,  Uri gives all his friends fake stories to try and keep them safer. Misha adopts the story of a Romanian gypsy who has a large family with 7 brothers and 5 sisters and a mother who is a very talented fortune teller. Their story says that Polish farmers separated Misha’s family twhich made him an orphan in Warsaw.

One night while stealing food, Misha runs into a jackboot and barely gets away. He ends up running to a garden where he meets a young girl named Janina. They begin to talk and exchange names. As they talk more, they become more familiar with one another, and she invites him to her 7th birthday party. She describes it as a huge wonderful gathering with this new thing called birthday cake. He has never heard of this. He agrees to go. As Warsaw becomes more and more controlled by the Nazis, there is now a new curfew, which makes it harder to steal and barter. One night while stealing, Misha gets his ear shot off by a jackbook because he is out past curfew. He barely gets away. Eventually Misha, Janina and her family, Uri, and the gang of boys are moved to the ghetto by the Nazis. The ghetto has nearly no food and everyone is living on the streets. Only some people get houses and the ones that do describe the houses as closets.

One day while sitting around in the ghetto a large troop of jackboots walks down the road. Misha runs straight to the front to see the amazing men only later to realize everyone around him is talking badly about them. He asks an old man next to him why they talk so badly about the jackboots and their leader. He realizes what a horrible man their leader is, especially since he likes to kill little Jewish boys for no reason. He decides he no longer would like to be a jackboot. He now hates them. As more and more days pass, food becomes more and more scarce. He and Janina find a hole n the wall separating the ghettos from the normal city. They go into the city every night and bring back food for their family and friends. The ghetto slowly starts to thin out street by street and there becomes less and less people. People are being forced to board trains. No one knows their destination. One night on their way back from stealing food in the city, they come to find that the hole has been patched up. They have to drop everything and sneak through the train station while people are being forced onto the trains. They get back to the shack they are living in and find it deserted. Janina runs to find her father. Misha loses sight of her in the crowd of people and eventually sees her thrown into a box car. He runs to get her but is hit over the head by a jackboot. Later, he wakes up by the train tracks, confused as to what happened. A farmer takes him back to his farm and nurses him back to health. He then works on the farm for 3 years.

He eventually runs away from the farm with no idea of where he is going. He ends up at a train station where he takes a train to Warsaw. He finds the place completely deserted. All that’s left are ruins and rubble in the city. He takes the Jewish arm patch from his arm and lays it on the ground, never to return to this place he knew so well. Misha changes his name to Jack and goes to America, telling stories of his life wildly throughout the streets for many years. He meets a woman named Vivian who he will later marry. She up and leaves him 5 months later, pregnant. Jack meets his daughter many years later working as a bagger for a grocery store. Her name is Katherine. He also meets his granddaughter named Wendy. She takes him to her house, where he ends up living. Jack still thinks of Janina now and then but never says anything.

Subject: The book was written very different. I was told from a 3rd person point of view from the first persons perspective.

Occasion: The book is talking about the Holocaust during the time when they are moving all of the jews from there homes to the ghetto to the camps.

Audience: The audience is for anyone about 13 and older. It is an adventures book to keep younger readers hooked but it also going into good detail about what actually went on during the holocaust.

Purpose: He is writing to the human race telling them of a huge mistake they have made and it was wrong. he’s telling his story of his life. how it should never be repeated.

Style: He writes the book with a niece point of view that the character possess but still gives enough information for the audiences to get what is going on fully.

Tone: He write the book with a soft niece tone. He keeps it like he was a child until the end of the book.