This I would probably give a 3 1/2 if I could. I liked the book, and keep thinking about the characters, their situations, and being a little haunted by it all, but I didn't fall in love with it. The main character is very interesting since he doesn't really know anything about himself except for a very few vague memories, doesn't even have a name, since it seems like he was left to fend for himself at a young age. He's taken under the wing of an older orphan boy in Warsaw, and although he's already an incredibly proficient thief, is kind of shown the ropes in terms of trying to survive in the quickly-changing world in Warsaw, which is first being bombed and then occupied by the Germans. The main character eventually gets a name, Misha, from his friend Uri, and it's interesting to see how he deals with not having much of a past in terms of first claiming the story that Uri gives him, and then not feeling the need for it any longer as he comes into his own and comes to know Janina and her family, the Milgroms. Although Misha isn't Jewish, he is darker-skinned and claims he is the child of gypsies, so he ends up imprisoned in the ghetto in Warsaw along with his other street friends and the Milgroms. Since Holocaust literature so often focuses on the concentration camps themselves, I liked how Milkweed showed more of what life was like in the ghettos, and illustrated how devastating and dehumanizing it was for people to lose their homes and livelihoods and then be captive in their own "towns" where conditions were very poor and they were basically starving. Spinelli also did a very good job in slowly revealing the different stages of the build-up to the Nazi occupation and the rising tide of hatred and intolerance of Jews and gypsies in the city, and I thought the idea of Misha and Janina and their friends being smugglers because they were able to escape from the ghettos (Misha and Janina through a two-brick wide hole in the wall!) to bring in food was really fascinating - that children would be a vehicle for their friends and families to survive because of their small size and ability to hide, etc.

I thought that Misha's relationship to Uri as they grew older was really interesting, and was a little sad that Spinelli didn't develop that further, even though Misha was "shifting alliances" from feeling his street friends were his family to feeling like he was Dr. Milgrom's child and claiming to all his friends that Janina was his sister when he introduced them (which I thought was very sweet). Still, what happens between the two towards the end of the book seemed very significant, so I was really surprised that there wasn't more about that in the book.

There were a few images that really stuck with me from the book: Misha watching the merry-go-round day after day, wanting to ride it, and then being kicked off it when he hops on a horse after not paying, and having little girls come and kick him and call him a dirty Jew with their mothers looking on and laughing. Misha watching the Nazis parade into town for the first time and being excited because he saw so many people running to watch, so he mistakes it for a happy occasion. Misha, the Milgroms, and everyone in the ghetto being rounded up in the middle of the night to stand in lines for hours on end, with Misha trying to be brave and stand perfectly straight, while the Nazis scream at them that they stink because people start to wet themselves (I thought that detail, which I wouldn't have thought of but which makes perfect sense, was really effective, because it shows the extent to which the Nazis were treating the Jews like animals/how the Jews were humiliated and degraded). Buffo, the "Flop" (one of the Jews who policed the other Jews within the ghetto), delighting in strangling/suffocating children with his hands while pushing them into his stomach, and Misha taunting Buffo until he realizes with horror that Janina is imitating him in that as well and becomes worried about her.

The different debates between the kids in the book about whether or not angels, mothers, etc, existed were really touching, sometimes funny, and revealing of their world, and I liked how Janina's character was developed to show how her and her family's imprisonment made her angry and stole her happiness at such a young age. It was a very tragic story, and I think the ending was sad and yet suitable for Misha, as it's not really realistic to expect that Misha would emerge from such a terrible and in many ways lonely childhood to become a "normal" adult. The ending reminded me of other Spinelli books in its bittersweet-ness; I hadn't remembered that until I finished, and then the dejavu hit me. :)

The book was fast-paced and kept my attention, but I think the reason I can't give it a higher rating is that I just felt disconnected from most of the characters (maybe because of Misha's point of view? It seems difficult for him to relate to other people in a way, so he seems almost Asperger's-ish at some points). Even though the characters interested me and their circumstances certainly aroused my empathy, I don't think I ever got to liking most of them because they seemed held at arms length/never fully realized.