I really enjoyed “I Am David” I liked that it was easy to read, it being a “youth” book. It was so interesting the things that happened to David. I thought that it would just be another Holocaust book. But, to me, the point of view was totally new. It was so interesting that since David only knew a concentration camp as regular live he didn’t know about a lot of other everyday things. I remember that I struck by the fact that he didn’t really know how to smile. He didn’t know what an orange was. He loved the taste of really bread. He was so untrusting of EVERYONE. That was sad. It was so depressing that he was so untrusting of everyone. He wanted to take a baby away from his mom because he, a young boy, thought that he knew that HE would take care of the baby whereas he didn’t know the mother and because of that didn’t think that she would care for the baby properly.
The book makes me think of survival. I don’t think that I could live through that but I guess if that is all you know you don’t know that life could be so much better. I think about how he lived with that terrible farmer and after months of slave-labor he took off. I guess our basic instinct is to just survive; eat, sleep and not much more. But what is a life like that? Then we are just animals. And I guess that is what the prisoners of concentration camps really were, just animals. Basic survival is just eating and sleeping but as humans we are not satisfied with just eating and sleeping. We need relationships, healthy (or at least semi-healthy) relationships. We need each other. We need progression and success and failure but with the hope of one day being successful.
I liked the part where he saves the little girl. It shows that he, at his core, was a good person. He wanted to do good. I think most of us come to earth that way and exterior things can change that; make you a bad person. Good think David had a good mother to start with and that one guy, what was his name? I can’t remember.
I kind of enjoyed the fact that the very last part he finally meets up with he mother that he didn’t ever know and the book ends there. I like that you have to imagine for yourself what will happen to this poor little boy that knows nothing that is good or fun or enjoyable. I’m sure that would be a struggle for an entire lifetime. It seems that when things happen for good or bad in your childhood they stick for a very long time.
Well, I enjoyed the book. Like I said, it made me think about a different perspective of a child growing up in a concentration camp. Thanks, Steph!
Now who get's to choose the next book?
5 comments:
I enjoyed the book I Am David. Vaughn and I saw the movie which we thought was really interesting. During all the extras on the DVD it was mentioned that the people who made the movie, loved the book as a child. It made me want to get the book. Funny though, that the movie is actually quite different from the book…
David was so serious and sad. In ways he was not like a child at all yet in other ways he was. He didn’t know how to play. He hadn’t learned how to smile. He didn’t understand what play was to children. He seemed stuck in a way—not a carefree child but also not a learned adult. He really was a stranger of sorts.
I loved how he could speak all the different languages. I also loved his sweet prayers and his strong faith in God although he could have been so bitter and miserable, he wasn’t. I also liked how he was amazed as he discovered beauty in the world all around him but also how he was fearful from things that really were not scary, like the little baby he saw being held by his mother. He couldn’t handle the fragility and neediness of the baby. That part actually made me a little tense and sad. I would have thought that a new little babe would have given him pleasure from its sweetness but instead he just could not comprehend it.
You have to wonder that if this were a true story, could someone that young actually overcome his terrible childhood to have a happy, joyful life? I don’t know but I think it would be really difficult. I give the book an A!
OK...I just read Kaths comments. I also thought it was interesting how he could not smile and how he would practice to try and get it right.
The ending was probably a little far fetched but I liked it anyway!
Hey Steph,
I enjoyed reading your comments! Now I think you and I were the only ones that read this book. So is it my turn to pick the next one or Tina's? What did we read before this? Was it "The Great Divorce"? I think it was, which means it's Tina's turn to pick the book. Tina what do you want to read?
Actually, Emily put up her comments way back on Dec. 12th as a comment to my asking about it. If you go back to Dec. it is under the title "wildmountain" since I made a mistake and did not put a title in. Go check it out. I find it hard to keep up on the "comments" sometimes.
xoxoxoxo
Hey!
You're right! I don't think that I read Emily's post back in December so I went and read it. Very insightful. I often think of how weird it is that I have these kids to look after. If I was a little more thoughtful I would be less impatient and more in loving awe of them. I'm working on that. Thanks Emily for what you wrote back in Dec.!
Hey! Liked your comments guys- what do we read next?? :)
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