Kayla

                                    **// I H AVE L IVED A T HOUSAND Y EARS: //**                      <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;"> **// GROWING UP IN THE HOLOCAUST //**    **  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">  By Livia Bitton-Jackson      **  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;">        <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left; display: block;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 241, 0); text-align: center; display: block;"> ↑Entrance to Auschwitz __**Summary**__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This story begins in Czechoslovakia. A young girl - Ellike, also known as Elli - is living happily. School is a blast and family life is going well. One unfortunate day at school occurs, where the teacher dismissed the class without any apparent reason. As the situation goes downhill <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, Elli realizes that the Jews are being targeted. From the school, to wearing the yellow stars, to being forced to live in the ghetto in cramped quarters, the worst of all decides to rear its ugly head. Elli and her family are sent to concentration camps, where they are forced to eat very little and must participate in irrelevant activities. In Auschwitz, Elli's mother becomes severely injured, and Elli and a few of her friends must smuggle her mother out of the infirmary. Strangely, her mother is selected to work in a factory and Elli is sent to the gas chambers, but miraculously escapes and joins her mother. After working a while at the factory, they get back on trains to go back to a concentration camp. Not too long after they are freed by the Americans, and the Germans surrender.

__**Theme**__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The theme of this book is (or I should say, what //I// think the theme of this book is) ambition. I feel that the theme of this book is ambition because of the numerous times the author states that she never stopped doing whatever she was doing, even if she thought she had no chance whatsoever of surviving. One thing she says that clues in on the whole ambition theme is that she works very hard in school to get good grades. The main character in the book gets in a few sticky situations, and although you don't really think about what's going on except for the outrageous action, the character is clinging to life. Also, at the beginning of the book in the foreword, the author writes, "My story is my message: Never give up."

__**Reader's Opinion**__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My opinion on this book is that it has the ability to be a fantastic read. If one does not like the "diary format" or has trouble reading paragraphs that switch between present tense and past tense, one might not enjoy the book at all. Another thing is that there are many Hebrew and German words, possibly creating confusion. I myself enjoyed the book though. The writing style was interesting and it caught my attention. It wasn't too confusing. The story rolled along more like a novel, rather than a text book (as many creative nonfiction books do). I'm not a big fan of great detail - once there are about four adjectives about a landscape, you might as well consider my attention gone. But this book had wonderful description, similes, and personification. I enjoyed reading every word of it.

__**Links:**__ [|Barnes and Noble - "I Have Lived a Thousand Years"] [|Book Reviews]

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