The book I am reading is Marika by Andrea Cheng. The protagonists name is Maria Schnurmacher; her nickname is Marika. Marika is Jewish but was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. The book starts off with Maria making fake birth certificates for her and her family saying they were “Katolicas”, or Catholics. Then she talks about how one summer when she was six they went to their summer house in Vac, and they came home to find that her father had put up a wall that separated him from the rest of the family. Next her Nanny threw away Marika’s favorite doll “Maxi” because she said it was leaking to much saw dust. In the book Marika is confused as to why her family hates there last name. Her uncle tries to explain to her that it is Jewish, when they are Roman Catholic. Next Nanny Mitzi Neni gets fired because Marika’s father wants her to learn French and Mitzi Neni has already taught Marika German. So Apa, Marika’s Father hires Colette who speaks French. One day Marika’s father makes a surprise visit and leaves her some books and one turns out to be French, and it is about a boy and a girl. Colette reads the story and gets an idea. She sneaks out of the house to see her boyfriend when she gets caught by Marias brother and father. After that Colette was fired and sent back to France.
The story takes place in Budapest, Hungary in the mid to late 1900’s. The protagonist is a young girl named Marika. She lives in an apartment with her mother and brother with her father Apa living next store. Her Uncle is also part of the story he gave her Maxi and helped forge the birth certificates. Currently in the book, Marika is not in school but knows three languages and can write very well.
The problem in the book is that everyone in Marika’s family is Jewish besides her, her brother, her mother and father, and her uncle. The war hasn’t started yet but her father and uncle know it’s not good to be Jewish. Even though she was raised and baptized in the Catholic Church her last name traces her back to her Jewish heritage. This doesn’t help her family and her father knows it. I think that later in the book somehow the Nazis will find out that Marika and her family are Jewish.
you did a nice job summarizing the beginning of the story. I like your prediction of what might happen to Marika's family. I thought that maybe they would hide like Anne Frank's family. I'm hoping that they survive by hiding unlike Anne Frank's family who were captured and sent to a concentration camp to die.
ReplyDeleteGood work summarizing the text and asking questions.
ReplyDelete5/5 points.