Common milkweed, when broken, drips a milky sap. Likely this is how it earned its name. The caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly feasts on this particular plant. The nectar of Milkweed is precious. Anyone who has studied this butterfly knows that is is resilient.
Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed opens from the point of view of an orphaned boy on the streets of Warsaw at the dawn of World War II. The metaphorical connection between the title of the book and the resilient young protagonist is not lost on the reader: "Call me thief. Call me stupid. Call me Gypsy. Call me Jew. Call me one-eared Jack. I don't care. Empty-handed victims once told me who I was. Then Uri told me. Then an armband." Read on to discover how resiliency transforms this Monarch of a boy. In the process, you might plant some Milkweed and consider its connection to the story for your Section 5 project.
-Kim