1. What Are the Earliest Memories Described in the First Chapter?

Name ______Date ______#______

Period ______Literature

Milkweed

Chapters 1-4

1. What are the earliest memories described in the first chapter?

2. How does the main character meet Uri?

3. Where does the main character meet the group of boys? Why are the boys there?

4. What is the only possession that the main character owns? What do the Unlaugher & Uri say about the character’s identity?

5. Why were people making and moving sandbags?

6. Why do people in the streetcar tell the boys to get off?

7. Why do you think Uri tells the boys, “Take only what you need?”

Chapters 5-7

1. Why do you think the main character is so excited to see the Jackboots?

2. Why do you think the other people are so sullen and subdued about their arrival? 3. What do the “men in beards and long black coats” represent? When does the main character realize this?

4. How does the main character get his name and a past? What are they?

Chapters 8 & 9

1. How old does Janina believe the main character to be?

2. When the main character attends Janina’s birthday what does he do & why?

3. Why are mobs of people painting yellow starts in the stores?

4. Where does Uri take the extra bread that the main character steals?

Chapters 10 & 11

1. Where is the main character shot, by whom, and why?

2. What does the main character believe in? What does Uri believe in?

3. Why are the trees disappearing?

4. What are black pearls? To whom does Mish bring them? Chapters 12- 14

1. What does Uri mean when he tells Misha to be invisible?

2. How is Misha treated by the other children after being thrown off the merry-go-round?

3. Why does Dr. Korczak pull Misha inside the orphanage when he tries to get the orphans to come ride the merry-go-round?

4. Although there is no evidence, who do the people accuse of breaking the horse on the merry-go- round?

Chapters 15-17

1. Why is Misha invisble to all the other Jews in the ghetto except for the stable boys, Janina’s family, and Doctor Korczak?

2. What is being built and why?

3. What did Janina’s father, Mr. Milgrom, do for a living? 4. What type of work do Janina’s parents do while in the ghetto?

5. Why does Misha think he is a lucky orphan?

Chapters 18-20

1. What does Misha notice that everyone else in ghetto is ignoring?

2. What has happened to the shoes and socks of the people on the streets of the ghetto?

3. Why are the horses disappearing?

4. What does Misha find that gives him hope for obtaining food?

5. What did Mr. Milgrom give Misha before the soldiers arrived? Why?

6. How did the Nazi soldiers torture the people in the ghetto?

Chapters 21-23

1. Who are the flops?

2. What caused Big Henryk to get caught? 3. There was news spreading that Himmler is coming. Who is Himmler?

4. Describe Buffo.

5. How did Misha escape Buffo?

Chapters 24-27

1. In your opinion, is there a cow? Explain.

2. While Misha is small enough to fit through the crack in the wall, how do the other boys get across?

3. What almost happened to Misha & Janina at the hotel?

4. Why are the boys hitting each other?

5. Why is the day Sunday significant for the people in the ghetto?

6. Why is it significant for the jackboots?

Chapters 28-31

1. Why does Mr. Milgrom tell Misha & Janina to stop smuggling?

2. What is the new way that the Nazis try to stop smugglers? 3. Does Janina stop smuggling after her father tells her, “NO”?

4. How do Misha and Janina react the milkweed plant?

5. Why is Uri able to work at the hotel even though he is a Jew?

Chapters 32-34

1. What happens to Mrs. Milgrom?

2. What did Mr. Milgrom give the new family that moved in with them?

3. What does Mr. Milgrom give Misha & Janina for Hanukkah, respectively?

4. What does Misha bring Janina that finally makes her happy?

Chapters 35-38

1. Why does Janina tease the flops?

2. What does Uri tell Misha to do?

3. What euphemism do some of the people use about the arrival of the trains?

4. What does the old man tell them about the trains?

5. How do the people in the ghetto respond to the old man’s warnings?

Chapters 39-42

1. Why does Janina run for the trains?

2. Why does Uri beat and shoot Misha?

3. Where is Misha going? 4. How do the farmer and his wife treat Misha when he arrives?

Chapters 43-45

1. How does the way the farmer and the wife treat Misha change?

2. What does Misha learn about after the war?

3. How does Misha’s name change again and what is it?

4. Who stops to listen to Misha’s story?

5. Why does Misha stop telling his story?

6. Who gives the protagonist his final identity?

7. Why do you think he never told anyone about his “sister” Janina?