On top of that, I felt like the writing was just I don't know how to describe it, but it felt simplistic to me, even for a YA book. But at the same time, it felt like it was supposed to be imparting some great truths, and while there were a few good quotes, I didn't think that there was anything especially profound here.
So, this was OK. Not anywhere close to the best book I've read on this subject, but not terrible. I just expected a bit more, I think. View all 24 comments. This is the first Jerry Spinelli book that I have read.
I bought Stargirl at the same time and after reading Milkweed I am excited to start reading Stargirl. Spinelli does well to portray the voice of a young orphan boy in Warsaw. There are a lot of reviews about this and the book "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" that say that it is unbelievable that there were children that did not know what was going on around them. I really disagree with these statements. I have taught 5th graders and 6th gra This is the first Jerry Spinelli book that I have read.
I have taught 5th graders and 6th graders that had no idea that we are at war with Iraq. So I do not, personally, find it hard to believe that this innocence or lack of knowledge occured even during the WWII Era with the Jews.
This was a great book about friendship and the importance of families, no matter who they are make up of. I think that it also shows us the importance of belonging. Misha really didn't care about what group: thieves, orphans, Jews, Jackboots, he belonged in, he just wanted to belong. View all 9 comments. Oct 13, Catherine rated it did not like it Shelves: world-war-two , young-adult.
I love both Maniac Magee and Stargirl, but this book left me cold. I found it unbelievable. I didn't really care about the characters. Spinelli is usually good to pull me into the story, but this story just made me feel yucky. I didn't get the whole "Candy man" in the Ghetto. Where did he come from. In every story I've ever read about the Holocaust the children and adults are always afraid of the soldiers.
I found the idea of the Misha and Janina taunting the Mint man annoying. It wouldn't hav I love both Maniac Magee and Stargirl, but this book left me cold.
It wouldn't have happened that way. I found the story annoying and trite. I expect better from Spinelli. Edited to Add: I think I figured out why this story bothers me so much. Spinelli tells of a boy who is fast, smart, and lucky enough to escape the Nazis. This story feeds into the fact that victims need to be better, stronger, faster, more clever, etc - and if they are, they can outsmart their abusers.
I feel that stories like this perpetuate the myth that the victim is responsible for their own escape from abuse. This story is why so many who have not been abused or in horrible situations say things like, "Well, why didn't they just walk away.
Why didn't they tell someone. This story asks the questions: "Misha was able to walk away from the Ghetto - why didn't all those other Jews just walk away from the Ghetto? Why didn't all those other Jews steal food so they didn't starve to death? They should have been as smart as Misha who is fictional. Now that I've identified why I don't like this book, I feel better. View all 6 comments. I loved, loved this book. It was so well written and I completely fell in love with the characters.
I wanted to leap through the pages and save them all. He writes youth fiction and is always age appropriate. I wish I had come across this particular book when I used to read to my boys. It would have brought about a great discussion that would surely have give I loved, loved this book. It would have brought about a great discussion that would surely have given them food for thought regarding WWII and the lives of children. I give this book 5 stars for many reasons: It was well written, it was age appropriate, it had a great message, it kept me interested, and the author nailed the basic nature of humans in each character, whether good or bad.
I usually never read reviews before I have written my own. It wasn't meant to be the best book ever written on WWII or the holocaust. I think Spinelli accomplished the telling of this awful time in history in a manner in which kids would understand and even sympathize with, without scaring them for life.
And I think that is saying a lot, especially when I consider some the inappropriate books my kids have been given to read over the years. Just sayin'! Feb 10, Laura rated it really liked it Shelves: lib-has-audio , library , favorite-authors , ya , on-dj , wwii , library-request , , on-laptop , toppler-finished-read. What a powerful book. However, as we read today's headlines, and we see people, many of whom are in positions of great power, vilifying all Muslims because some are extremist terrorists, honestly the extremist "Christians" running America right now are a whole lot scarier.
Let's hope justice catches up to them, and soon. WWII in Poland, young and old starving, doing what they have to do to survive, thousands of Jews being imprisoned, massacred: This book brought that whole horrible time up close and personal.
I lost myself completely in this world, and as brutal as it was, there were glimmers of hope in the kindness of men and women who risked punishment, even death, to stand up for what was right. This is a book that will stay with me forever. A powerful read, and a beautifully performed audiobook, as well. Mar 05, littlemiao rated it did not like it Shelves: ww2-holocaust , overdrive-audio. Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli, is another disappointing addition to recent Holocaust fiction which has made its way into classrooms, displacing more worthwhile and significant works of fiction and non-fiction.
Perhaps that makes me resent it a little more than it deserves. The author means well. The author tried. I gave the book 1. The two do share at least a few notable similarities. They won enough critical attention to become integrated into school curricula.
The authors profess no personal connections to the Holocaust. And the protagonists of both books are young boys completely oblivious to their social contexts.
Strangely enough, neither protagonist knows what a Jew is at the start of their story. Milkweed, told from the perspective of a young orphan growing up on the streets in Warsaw and later in the Warsaw ghetto, has all the ingredients for a thought-provoking exploration of what would be challenging and important themes for readers for any age.
It should be a story with great symbolism and significance. It should be tragic, moving, haunting. Indeed, the author loads the story with symbols - stone angels and milkweed pods being the most obvious - and does not sugarcoat the grimness of the setting. It has potential. But the book is incredible in the most unfavorable sense of the term. Weighty symbolism and a tragic setting are not enough to carry a story. The author is, to an extent, faithful to history. It was a brutal time and he does not shy away from the brutality.
In fact, he shows us little else. Without outside knowledge, the reader would be ignorant that Warsaw was a vibrant center of Jewish life before the war. But that reality is also a crucial element to understanding the Warsaw setting.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising barely earns a mention - it happens after the narrator escapes the city. The Jews in the ghetto come across as hardly more than doomed husks of humanity. But the narrator is different.
He is not a Jew - that is one of the few things he knows about himself. He knows he is a Gypsy, though he has no concept of growing up as a member of a marginalized and stigmatized group.
He also knows he is a thief - he calls himself Stopthief because that is what everyone else calls him. But he is not just any thief; he is a thief of Robin Hood-esque skill and bravado, gracing his starving Jewish friends in the ghetto with the fruits of his forays across the wall.
His innate thieving skills give him the ability to smuggle food across the ghetto wall with an impunity that would have gotten anyone else killed. To whatever extent the author was successful in recreating the setting, he undermines it with the unbalanced view of Jewish life in Warsaw and with an unconvincing narrator.
The unrelenting parade of brutality against Jews that the narrator witnesses comes across as voyeuristic rather than educational. Having lived on the streets for long enough to become a skilled thief, a survivor, the protagonist would be able to sense the difference between whatever activities normally took place on streets before the Nazi invasion and acts of violence targeted against Jews that followed the invasion. He must have developed some kind of interpretive framework to understand his world.
He is not alone in this urge - the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas did the same. They both create a character who has grown up in a certain context but is, for unexplained reasons, completely oblivious to that context in their basic knowledge, beliefs and assumptions, and experiences. I would argue that if this is going to be one of the defining characteristics of a character, it should be interrogated and explored.
How we become who we are is part of why we see things the way we do, and why we act as we do. There are compelling reasons why a character, regardless of age, might have no recollection of their past. Their past does not have to be explained or resolved, but it will filter into their present in meaningful ways.
Their unknown past will influence the telling of the story. But when this blankness is used as the pretext for an otherwise inexplicable collection of traits, then it is lazy writing. As oblivious as he is, how did he even survive to the start of the story, let alone its end? Making the protagonist a blank slate is an easy way to disclaim responsibility to the historical setting. The author can, and does, avoid any real engagement with the issues he raises. And there are plenty of issues in this book worthy of deeper engagement - what it meant to be labeled a Jew or a Gypsy before or after the Nazi invasion; what it meant to be homeless or orphaned in urban Poland; what it means to have no memories of your own, no past, no sense of belonging; what impact witnessing pervasive violence has on growing up.
The author frees himself from having to write a character who embodies the history, beliefs, and upbringing of their times. The character can thus serve as a stand-in for the author himself, a vehicle for whatever message or symbolism the author wants to express. That is not a responsible engagement with our past. Nor is it very good literature.
All it can produce is a one-dimensional cut-and-paste version of history that uses real events like cheap props. The narrator interjects occasional bouts of omniscience with his obliviousness. The contrast undermines his portrayal as oblivious or innocent. By the end, it becomes clear that he is an old man looking back to his childhood. But throughout, it seemed that the author wanted to have it both ways - to write someone who is oblivious to everything except whatever facts the author felt he needed to advance the story.
This unevenness in perspective does not do anything purposeful in a literary sense. In this story, though, it only erases any potential of the narrator to be convincing or compelling. The best I can say is that I found Milkweed to be an uninspiring foray into the horrors of history. View 1 comment. Jul 31, C. Drews rated it it was amazing Shelves: young-adult , 5-star , historical-fiction.
There's something special, something real, about Jerry Spinelli's books. His style of writing is one of my absolute favourites. You don't just read his books. You get inside the pages and stand on the street corner while the pickpockets run, the bombs fall, and the Jackboots march in their perfect rows.
It's not just a story. It's your story -- because you're in it. The characters, the plot, the setting, the details, the dialogue -- all pitch perfect. I had to read the whole book in one sitting. You lived and breathed with the characters, sharing their laughter, triumph, tears and the hopelessness of their world.
You start believing in bread, in running, in angels. You see why they say mothers aren't real, and neither are oranges. Real mother's don't die. And, if the war ever ends and life returns to normal, you see why, if you've always been a homeless thief, there is no normal to return to.
It's a sad book, sad and happy all at once. I don't often find books that capture a world. But this one did. I would venture that this is a read alike for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Set in Poland during World War II Milkweed is told through the unique perspective of one of those lost-through-the-cracks kids Our MC - "Misha" for all intents and purposes - is a thief, a runner, an orphan, a gypsy with no memory of his life before the story begins.
He steals food to survive and has zero awareness of what is going on in his little world outside of the speeding images that he runs past daily. Misha stumbles upon a group of boys, thieves like himself, and learns a bit about what is happening and what it means. The imagery is startling in it's youthful metaphors and innocence. Spinelli uses Misha's voice to show us what the world looked like and what it truly means to be invisible.
This is one of those books that reminds me I'm a monster, or that I have broken eyes, or some such thing I bet this book makes loads of people cry but not me, my eyes were bone dry. Apr 11, Wendy Hudson rated it it was amazing Shelves: for-braydon , It's taken me a little while to put into words a review for this book.
My son and I have been studying WW2 and the Holocaust. We have read and watched numerous stories, fiction and non fiction pertaining to our unit study. This book is one of the absolute best. Don't get me wrong, the content is difficult, unfathomable and just downright hard to read but if we want to understand history, we can't sugar coat it. My son is 11 and became so deeply enthralled by this story that we ended up reading i It's taken me a little while to put into words a review for this book.
My son is 11 and became so deeply enthralled by this story that we ended up reading it every day for hours and hours just to get through to the end. The story, even though it is a work of fiction, will stay with you for a very long time. We even went out and bought a Milkweed plant for our garden after reading this.
It should be on every middle schoolers required reading list. Mar 15, Tabi rated it it was amazing. I read this for school, and I was fascinated and couldn't put it down! I would highly recommend it I read this for school, and I was fascinated and couldn't put it down! I would highly recommend it Buchwald served as editor, and Scholes as art director, of Milkweed Chronicle.
The journal was published three times per year from to , producing 21 issues in total that featured works from artists and writers located in Minnesota and elsewhere across the nation. The first issue of Milkweed Chronicle was financed in part by the Jerome Foundation. The journal continued to be funded by grants, including a McKnight Award for Excellence in the Arts in , but Buchwald and Scholes also called on subscribers for support.
By the mids, Buchwald and Scholes sought to reach a larger audience than what was possible with Milkweed Chronicle. The book, published in lieu of volume 5, issue 1 of Milkweed Chronicle , was sent to all subscribers and was also available in bookstores. For the next three years, the press would continue to publish books of poetry and prose in conjunction with Milkweed Chronicle. In , Buchwald and Scholes published their final issue of Milkweed Chronicle and transitioned to being full-time book publishers under the name Milkweed Editions.
Many of the writers published by Milkweed Editions in its infancy as a book publisher would continue to publish with the press into the s and s.
From the early s and forward, Milkweed Editions has become known for publishing books about social issues. A similar initiative was launched in called The World As Home. They also established a website bringing together environmental writing published at Milkweed and elsewhere.
In addition to non-fiction, Milkweed Editions published works of poetry and fiction throughout the s and s. As of , Milkweed Editions has a catalog of over titles and millions of volumes in circulation. Milkweed has published thirteen winners of the Minnesota Book Award. Since , the press has undergone several administrative transitions. In , the press opened its first bookstore, called Milkweed Books, in the Open Book building.
Additional Description. Were there any titles in particular that were game-changers for your business? The fact that Braiding Sweetgrass landed on the New York Times Bestseller list five years after we published it in paperback is a rarity in our industry.
In essence, Braiding Sweetgrass is a book about attention, written from the intersectional perspective of a writer who is a mother, botanist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Readers write us emails. They find us on social media and tag us in their photos of Braiding Sweetgrass. They reach out to ask if they can republish excerpts on their blog. They choreograph dances inspired by Braiding Sweetgrass , paint, write songs, plant gardens, all of it. Demkiewicz, marketing director. How do you get feedback from your readers? We are a very chatty publisher, that is, we like to talk directly with our readers.
Also unless you are trying to submit your manuscript! How has the coronavirus crisis changed your work? Covid has also hit a couple staff members personally, which has led to moments of vulnerability and openness across staff.
All of this compounded has deeply impacted us on individual levels, trauma and grief and stress that cannot be unmarried from daily professional work.
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