Milkweed (novel) facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | Jerry Spinelli |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young Adult Book, Historical Novel |
| Publisher | Knopf |
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Publication date
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2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback |
| Pages | 208pp. |
| ISBN | 978-03-7581374-0 |
Milkweed is a 2003 young adult historical fiction novel by American author Jerry Spinelli. The book is about a boy in Warsaw, Poland in the years of World War II during the Holocaust. Over time he is taken in by a Jewish group of orphans and he must avoid the Nazis (or "Jackboots") while living on the streets with other orphans. The story narrator is 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 named Janusz Korczak.
Milkweed is the tale of a boy with no identity at a time when one's identity could mean the difference between life and death. Published in 2003, the novel became a popular young adult work used by English teachers to facilitate a discussion of the Holocaust. Readers are immersed in the experiences of a child who does not fully comprehend what is happening around him in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Background
Milkweed was influenced by Jerry Spinelli’s "obsession to understand" the Holocaust growing up and personal accounts Spinelli read before publishing the novel. In an interview Jerry Spinelli said he feels one of his earliest memories are of looking at pictures of the Holocaust. Milkweed pods, a major theme in the novel, seem to have also come from Spinelli's childhood where he used to blow milkweed pods near his home. In his interview with Nadine Epstein, Spinelli explains his hesitance to write a novel based on the Holocaust and on feeling "unqualified" since he had no personal connections with the Holocaust other than caring about it. Once he decided to proceed in writing a novel concentrated on the Holocaust, personal accounts like Elie Wiesel's memoirs gave Spinelli insight.
Awards and nominations
Milkweed received the 2004 Golden Kite Award for Fiction and the 2003 Carolyn W. Field Award for Fiction.
Symbolism and major themes
Examples of symbolism in Milkweed are angels and milkweed pods. In The Horn Book Magazine Peter D. noted that “[the] angel statue and [the] milkweed plant that somehow grows in the ghetto,” were a few of the novel’s motifs. Likewise, Suzanne Manczuk explained “Two things come to symbolize hope . . . statues of angels . . . and the unlovely but enduring milkweed pods.”
Milkweed addresses the themes of survival, caring for others, and existence itself. Anna Rich wrote “Misha . . . survives the Warsaw ghetto, where hangings, beatings, and murders are daily occurrences”. In The Houston Chronicle Marvin Hoffman described how “Misha contributes a portion of the meager booty from his forays under the wall to the ‘outside’-sometimes no more than a single potato-to Dr. K’s [Korczak’s] children.” This is an example of Misha caring for others. In The Bookseller, Wendy Cooling said the novel was “about people, about caring and about life itself”.
