Misha: chapters 1 and 2

I really was not thrilled or interested in this book at all at first. The beginning was very slow and it took a while for the story to pick up, but once it did, it was good. This was until the end of the last chapter. It felt very slow again and it just described the living conditions she lived through on her own for pages. It seemed repetitive even though it really wasn’t. The one thing I questioned was how old Misha actually was. When she was put into a home for hiding with another family, she was given the identity as a 4 year old because she could pass for that age. However, when she ran away and had to live on her own, she knew exactly what to do and how to take care of herself in the harsh conditions of the winter break. I also noticed that she talks about her life of present day relating to the past. For instance, in the book she wrote, “From that time on I always slept with my shoes on. (Today I own over three hundred pairs of shoes, and I don’t need a psychiatrist to tell me why I buy so many more than I could possibly need.)” Throughout the last chapter, she did this many times. When she was brought to the home where she was being hid, she was put into a closet like room as her bedroom. She was expected to help out around the house and she could only do things when she was told she could. She was allowed to leave the house only once a week and that was to go get eggs and other ingredients from a man who they called grandpas farm. Misha loved making this trip every week and she spent hours on the farm. She was able to be herself and grandpa and his wife fell in love with her. If she had it her way, she would live with them but they were unable to keep her in hiding. She felt at home when she was with them and she completely forgot about the heartache she had from missing her parents. The hardest thing she had to do when she