Alicia My Story

1. Julia Pearson

2. Alicia: My story

3. Alicia Appleman-Jurman

4. Historical Fiction/ Memoir

5. Just Right

6. pg. 377

1. I am very far into the book and much has happened so far. The main character Alicia Jurman has just survived through the Holocaust and many terrible things have happened to her. All of her family is dead, she was in jail for months, and she almost starved to death, but through all this she has managed to be heroic and save many people's lives. She has just joined the Becha, which is a secret organization that legally and illegally transports Jewish people out of Poland, where they are not welcomed. Alicia will be leading them across borders to safety.

2. I think this book is very insightful, engaging, and inspirational. I have read some pretty gruesome Holocaust books before, and though this one is very sad and horrible at parts, it isn't unbearable. It has a good vibe to it, because Alicia is such a good person and always finds a way to survive and help others, even when she is in trouble herself.

3. The theme in the book right now is selflessness, or helping others. This is because Alicia is always finding away to not just save herself, but others as well. She has stayed in prison with a girl she hardly knew when she could leave, because she wanted to make sure the girl didn't name names and put other innocent Jews into prison. She save the lives of Russian partisans who were locked in prison. She risked her life to save a baby and was caught by the Germans. She has done these things and many more.

4. My favorite character is Alicia. As I said above, she is a very selfless, heroic, courageous person. She always thinks of others. I love how she is driven by her hate for the Germans and what they have done to her family and her people, and whenever faced with them, instead of being frightened she yells at them and spits in their face. She isn't afraid of them. Also she does all this as a young teenager, 12-15 years old.

5. My least favorite character is the polish man who yelled at Alicia when she asked for his help. When she wanted money to start a Jewish orphanage for the people who survived the concentration camps, he got very angry and said, "You Jews still survived?" before Alicia slapped him and yelled at him than ran out. He represents all the indifferent and intolerant people who judged by religion.

6. I predict that Alicia will successfully transport many other Jews out of Poland and into Eretz Israel, and will do many more courageous things to keep these people from getting killed or thrown into prison.