the island on bird street/Uri Orlev
by maya yakir, tet 4
uri orlev
feburuary 24, 1931
hometown:
warsaw, poland
profession:
an israelI writer and translator, espacially on kids and youth literature.
his books have been mostly involved on the holocaust and his first years in israel.
summary:
his mother was missing (probably dead), and he was sepperated from his father.
he was waitind alone in an hide in bird street number 78 for his father return.
eventually he stayed in the hide for 5 month.
while he stayed there, he had to find ways to survive and face the stiff reality.
he made it by using the knowledgh he gatherd from his father, mother, and all the books he read.
he had to come out to get food, and while he was outside he met people, who helped him defend himsef, have mature experiences and more.
in example we can see his meeting with freddy and henryk.
there was a jewish rebellion and he saw a german soldire threatening 2 jewish.
he took the gun his father gave him and shoot the soldire.
henryk, one of the rebellions was hurt and was hiding with him for a while.
he helped him and gave him food, and in return henyk though him how to get to the polish side in order to get food and how to manage.
in the end, after the five months he heard noise, went to an hide becuase he heard two people, but surprisingly, it was boruch and his father.
the charecters:
alex is a twelve years old boy who lived in poland, warshaw.
he stayed alone, and had to face the fear and survive.
in the story he showes courage, creativity, insistency, good hearted, matureness, rescuer, learning quickly the environment, igenios, pizzazz and careful.
he acquired all this by vacuuming knowladge from his relates and from books.
he manage to survive becauuse of:
1. he read books- all the story we can read about how much he love books and even he said thier as important as food.
although he really like to read the book robinson crusoe, and by this we can see the comparison between them.
they both have courage, they both lives on an island- on a place they had nothing and he had to improvise to survive, by himselfes, for many monthes, taking what they needed from other houses,
2. his mouse (snow)- the pet was like a person to him, a thing he can really talk to and sharing his thoughts, fellings and even the food. basicly- a company.
3. the people he met- in all of the 5 months alex met a lot of people who gave him tools so he can keep on surviving.
4. the hope- without the hope that he will see his father again he would be already dead.
the fact he dicided he will suvive to see his father no matter what halped him a lot.
the mainor characters:
1. alex father- worked in the rope factory, dedicated his life for taking care of alex, was send to working camp.
2. boruch- good friend of alex's father, worked in the rope factory, was a source of insperation to alex- was ready to give up on his life so that alex and his father will stay together.
3. stashya- is a friend alex met, he had feelings for her, they met a few times until he was afraid a friend of her will find his hide so they desconnected.
4. henryk and freddy- two jewish rebellions that alex save, later he kept on touch with henryk and they helped each other.
5. martha- a jewish child who lived with selfish perents, alex saved her and then the kept connectig.
there was altough a lot more characters, but i chose those because i thougth they were the most improtant
why does the book called the island on the bird street on my opinion:
because:
1. is was on the bird street, i guess there were a lot of birds in this strees.
2. alex had his own island in the middle of the street- like rubinson crosue.
my opinion on the book:
it's hard for me to read about the hollocaust, and this book espesially cause it was in high level, because if this subject is coming up i can't sleep because it freeks me out.
It made me think about how lucky i am living here, with all of my family, having all i want.
altough it made me apreciate all that is around me and know I wont take things as obvious.
I think that the book is giving us a ggod perspective from the eyes of a jewish boy, at eye level, really close to the reader' and i think it fitts all the ages (and now im sure because my mom read it too) .
this is not exactly my type of books so it was hard to stay focus on the book and not run to other thing, but in the end Im happy i've read it because it taught me a lot.