Weekly Reading Response to I ave Lived a Thousand Years

Name: Alexandra H Title: I Have Lived a Thousand Years Author: Livia Bitton-Jackson
Total pages this week: 83 Date: April 22nd, 2008 Pages: 140-223

Response:

Throughout the book, I was wondering why it was called "I Have Lived a Thousand Years". I thought it had something to do with her finally surviving the Holocaust and it might have felt like a thousand years to her or something. But then it finally says why it is called I Have Lived a Thousand Years and it all makes sense. What I thought was right and I think that it is kind of smart that Livia Bitton-Jackson put that as the title because it is kind of random, but it really goes with the book.

I think that Ellie should have gone back for her poems. If it was so hard for her to leave them behind and if they kept all of her poems that she has worked on for so long, why didn't she go back for them? She could have convinced her mom to go with her just for a short time to go back for her poems since they were one of the only posessions she owned after the war. And if she put so much time into them, why would she just leave them and go off to America?

Why do you think Ellis didn't go back for her poems?

I Have Lived a Thousand Years Weekly Reading Response

Name: Alexandra Title: I Have Lived a Thousand Years Author: Livia Bitton-Jackson
Total Pages This Week: 100 Date: April 11th, 2008 Pages: 40-140

Response:

One of the thing sthat surprises me the most about reading this book is how badly they treated these people just because of their beliefs. It's one thing to seperate them from the rest of the world but then to torture them like that and to just not care about how many people die is kind of scary. I knew before reading this book that a lot of people were treated harshly and that a lot of poeple died but no that I've read about half of this book I kind of know what hapened and how bad it actually was. In this war, I think that people on the outside of all of this for example the people who didnt have relatives or anything in this war were kind of not aware that it was this bad. If they were aware I think that things could have been different and the war might not have lasted as long.

In this book, besides Ellie, I think that the mother plays a major part in it. I think that Ellies mother plays a big part because the mom kind of shows the moral in a way. The mmoral is not giving up and thats what Elli does because she is trying to get out of those concentration camps while getting her mother out as well. I don't think it would be as good of a book or a real life experienc ef the mother wasnt in it.

Question: Do you think that Elli's mother gets better and they both pass the whole inspection with out getting cought?

Weekly Readiing Response to I Have Lived a Thousand Years

Name: Alexandra Title: I Have Lived a Thousand Years Author: Livia Bitton-Jackson
Total Pages This Week: 40 pages Date: Friday, April 4th Pages: 1-40

Response:

Ellie, the main character in the book, reminds me of Anne Frank. She reminds me of her because they both were worrying about small things and now they are both hiding from the police/soldiers and they are both around the same age. I think that they both keep to themselves throughout the beginning and they both think that this is really sad that just because they're jewish they get punished.

I think that the sentence "But I cannot put the vision out of my mind. Bloody heads rolling around on the local soccer field become a recurring nightmare." is kind of interesting in a way. I think that it is terrible that Hitler or anyone would ever say something like that, but I think that it is interesting how her dad says that it is just a figure of speech. I think that her dad wants her to stop worrying about it even though he also worries about it. I think that he worries about it just as much as she does but tries to hide it because if he admits that he's scared then the whole family would be scared so they might even want to give up or not try because they would have very little hope.

Why do you think that Ellie seems more angry and says more than her family does about the war?