Overall Summary of Milkweed

Milkweed is pretty much a book about an orphan kid who lives in the streets of Warsaw, Poland. He lives as a little thief and soon finds other kid thieves. Uri is his most closest friends in that group. He guides "Stopthief" and later even creates a story background for him which changes his name to "Misha". Misha later finds a girl named Janina and becomes part of her family. They steal food together at night and they go to the ghetto. Misha sees what the Jackboots are really like and becomes less interested in them. They finally get found out one night and Janina is sent to the trains. Uri saves Misha's life by not killing him. He then escapes and lives to raise enough money to go to America. He works as a market employee there and is greeted by his daughter and grandaughter. His daughter asks him to come up with the middle name for her daughter and Misha picks Janina. Misha finally remembers how Janina liked milkweed plants and his grandaughter, Wendy Janina, names him poppynoodle. I think it was pretty sad how most of his friends died in the past but it was a cool new future.

The trains

Misha finally found Uri who was working nonstop. Uri wanted Misha to pretend to not know him to stop some suspicion that could happen. Uri told Misha about the trains which were the reason that Misha and the other boys should run. Uri said that they deported them to somewhere else that was not good to know about. After the talk, Uri gives Misha some food to eat. Misha tells the rest of the boys about the deportation that Uri told him about earlier. Enos seemed to know what that meant but the rest of them didn't. The Milgrom family was told next about that information and Uncle Shepsel says there is nothing to be scared about because he is a Lutheran. Janina also starts observing the trains more often because she is interested in them.

The Ghetto and the Flops

The ghetto is not a happy place to be in. Misha and his friends Uri and the others are trying to find out things. They can't decide if Himmler was a real person or not. Whenever Misha went to the parade of the Jackboots, he never found Himmler but instead he found a man with a small mustache. Misha and his relationship with the Milgroms are getting better but Uncle Shepsel hates him. Janina also argues with Misha that she is better than him which shows she pretty arrogant. The Flops are basically Jews that guard other Jews. They don't carry guns but a Flop named Buffo doesn't need it. He smothers kids into his fat and kills them that way. Almost all the children are scared of Buffo. Misha luckily escaped from him later by taking off his shoes. Buffo really hates Misha.

I am a friend of Misha Pulduski. The ghetto is bad Mr. Misha. The Jackboots there give you a very low food supply and treat you very bad. If you had parents, they would take them to work daily but luckily you are an orphan. Just be careful and keep your friends Janina and Uri and rest of them safe. Stick together!

Chapter 12-16

He goes to the merry-go-round and finds fun there and a favorite horse. It is black horse with golden reins and a harness. It gets stolen and he gets mad. A Jew was caught and treated badly by the Jackboots. A huge group of Jews are also going to the ghetto.

Uri

Uri appears to be a Jew because he says it during the "yellow star in front of the barber shop part". He guides Stopthief around Poland and even gives him a made up story background. Then Jackboots would not suspect him as a Jew. Uri tells him what is stupid and unformal and tries to keep off other people's suspicions on him. He also protects Stopthief from bullies like the peeing kid.