Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Milkweed is a book about a young boy growing up in Warsaw, Poland. It follows his life as he learns about the Nazi Party’s invasion of Warsaw, the bombing, the punishments that Jews are made to endure, the ghetto and is finally given a name and identity - Misha the gypsy.

Misha befriends a young girl from a Jewish family when eating the last tomatoes of summer from her back garden. He starts to visit this family home and exchanges gifts of food with the little girl until she no longer leaves gifts and her house is occupied by a Nazi soldier wearing big black ‘Jackboots’. Meanwhile the Nazi Party’s presence is becoming increasingly overbearing and Warsaw’s population of Jews, gypsies, orphans and disabled are evacuated out to the ghetto. The search for food becomes a nightly game for Misha, ducking through a small hole in the huge, brick wall enclosing the ghetto, out into the city of Warsaw. However Misha soon learns that this life, of smuggling food and dreaming of living in Warsaw once again, will soon be ending as the trains arrive to ‘resettle’ all those living in the ghetto.

This story following Misha and his friends is extremely powerful. The sense of the destruction of Warsaw by the bombings, the atmosphere in the ghetto, the desperation of all people in the ghetto is communicated so powerfully by Jerry Spinelli, you cannot help but feel their desperation yourself. The book also describes events and politics very clearly, helping young students to learn and understand the Holocaust and its consequences.

Milkweed is suitable for children over 7 years old.

Review by Imogen Topliss

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