The book shows plenty of emotions of their loved ones being lost. Livia wrote her memory into a book, like most Holocaust survivors did. Most people are unaware of the presence of the Holocaust or just were uninterested. Like most Holocaust books they show the nightmare they experienced. Elli gives the reader an idea that they have hope to survive.
Some people read certain Holocaust books that fits their writing style and her Livia gives the reader the first person point of view.
We chose this book for our English class and we presented how they were killed like if one person in the barrack did not cooperate with the SS officers, the entire barrack was sent to gas chambers.
I recommend readers read this book.

This book is so powerful. I have read many stories of Holocaust survivors, but few if any have presented such a vivid view of the horrors the Jews faced. Some parts were disturbing, but they describe true history, so they are definitely important to read. If you're interested in the Holocaust, this is a great read.

"I Have Lived A Thousand Years" is a personal and gut-wrenching story of how a 13-year old girl survived the German Holocaust in the death camp of Auschwitz. The book is fairly short with short chapters. It is obviously written for adolescent readers, but can certainly be appreciated by adults as well. This is a very good first book for teens to learn about the Holocaust. It is written in the first person, and we "see" the horrifying conditions through the author's sensitve eyes.

The story is gripping from page one to the last page. It should be read and then discussed with the adolescent reader, as many questions will be raised as to the horrific nature of the Holocaust.

There are many good Holocost books, but the stark reality presented in this book, along with the narrative style, makes this an excellent introductory first-person account to the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Jim Koenig

Fantastic book, I recommend it to many of my students at work. I cried and cried at the end. We certainly have no idea in our cosy 2007 world. A brave, graphic and well written book.

She was one in thirty five that returned...Originally, five hundred left. Into the ghetto then into cattle cars, off to fend for their lives. Thirteen year old Elli (later, changing her name to Livia. Yes, this is a true story!) was one of many young, Jewish, innocent, Holocaust victims. Elli and her family lived a comfortable life. They owned a local gocerey store, they were successful and had many close friends and family...that is, until Germany took over. In March 1944, the Nazis invaded Hungary. Privledges were taken away slowly but surely, no more school, giving up prized possessions and their store, having to wear yellow stars. What was this? No one knew. SUddenly, Elli finds that all will be lost. Elli's family is moved into a crowded ghetto, and they lose all the privledges and possessions that they hadn't already lose. It took everything they had to survive, yet little did they know, this was only the beginning. Soon, they were put on cattle cars. Ellie's family was spilt up among concentration camps; although, Ellie and her mother managed to stay together and survive some of the harshest punishments the Nazis dished out. This is a remarkable memoir of a teenage girl who no doubt had, lived a thousand years, she had no chouce. Her hope and faith along with her suffering and fears, you won't beleive a thirteen year old would've realized and out smarted the Nazis in such ways. Not only is this a beautiful story of survival but an ugly piece of history. Having background on WOrld War II helped me understand a bit more but also this book taught me a great deal of history, another reason to read. This book, was definitely a fast read, I couldn't put it down. You're constantly wondering..."Will she survive?! How will she out smart them this time?! Will she escape?!" You would definitely need to enjoy survival and history to get through this novel and also know that some chapters are a bit graphic. This woman went through the unthinkable and she doesn't hold back on letting you know that. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an amazing story with some history behind it. Livia Bitton-Jackson is a part of our history and survived as one of thirty five returning of an original five hundred. This woman did the unthinkable.

-Kaitlyn Toner

I read this book years ago, when I was about 10 years old and didn't even understand fully the depth of the Holocaust. But even then I enjoyed this tale of a girl surviving against the odds. Great book for everyone; helps even the young to understand the plight of millions during that dark era and got me interesting in the Holocaust.

This book will leave you speechless. Just when you think humanity can
go no lower, the author describes acts that leave you amazed that
humans can be so cruel. A story of survival that needs to be told so that
we never forget the loss of so many innocent lives.

I have been reading many Holocaust memoirs in search of one that would be appropriate to use in teaching junior high English; this memoir is the best I have found for teens because it is written from the perspective of a young adolescent girl. The voice in the memoir is so different because even though she is trapped in the death camp, she still has many of the same cares and worries of a normal teenage girl. When she talks about how she had a crush on a young Jewish boy in the ghetto, feeling ugly after her hair is shorn off, her frequent fights with her critical mother, or her excitement about being told she was pretty, she could easily be one of my students. But her will to live is anything but normal, as she talks about surviving in the filth of Auschwitz and risking her life to save that of her mother. The most gripping scene of the novel is when American forces mistakenly fire on her transport car as they are being shipped from Auschwitz juts days before liberation. Many of the young girls around her literally blown apart while she sits in horror. Somehow she manages to survive and move on in her life, and even return to German to confront her past many years later. She has truly lived a thousand years.

We must never forget the Holocaust. There are many lessons learned in works about the Holocaust. This book is about a 13 year old girl fighting to survive in a concentration camp. Imagine your child being thrown out of school, can no longer keep your possessions. Not be allowed to talk even to a neighbor. Have little food, and then thrown into a nightmare beyond belief! Not to be a gloomy gus but I think we must learn from the holocaust. We never know what tomorrow may bring.

For some reason this book was harder for me to read than the others. I guess because it was written from the view point of a young girl. She even calls her mother -'mommy' throughout the book so at first I thought it might be relatively tame compared to the other accounts. Especially because the book was recommended for Young Adults. It was not! The things she describes seemed more horrific than the other books I've read. You dont want to believe this young girl would go through all she did and survive. Honestly who would want to? I went to bed dreaming about her story. It really makes all our problems seem so laughable and insignificant. And to think that -we- the human race did those things to one another is an unbearable truth to bear. It is another testament to faith and the Human will to survive.

I have read a lot of books about the holocaust, and I especially like to read memoirs written by survivors of the Holocaust. This is one such memoir that is compelling and heartbreaking in the descriptions of the horrors suffered by the writer and her family during the Holocaust. Initially, we witness the author's desire to be loved and praised by her mother, her ambition to be a poet, and her descriptions of simple, everyday life in her little village...later, we are led on a horrific journey beginning with the restrictions imposed upon the Jews in the village, the deportation of Elli's[ the author] father to a labor camp in Hungary, and finally Elli's own deportation together with her mother and brother to Auschwitz...their journey of terror doesn't end at Aushwitz for Elli finds herself and her mother constantly battling for survival under the most deplorable conditions, being forced to endure unimaginable suffering and degradation, being shunted from one concentration camp to another, and finally liberation. Elli's journey is one of horror, hope, faith and resilience, and truly inspiring.

Much respect is due to this author; she has been exceedingly generous to attempt to tell us, people who can never know, about the extraordinary suffering to which she was subjected. Her writing is simple and straight-forward; scenes that she so plainly descibes are haunting. At times I found myself thinking that the author was too sweet to be true, but these are her memories, and this book is her life. I thank her for imparting to the reader a segment of her life that, truly, when you think about it, defies the written word. An important book, most definitely worth reading.

I have read many books about the Holocaust but this is the first one that actually made me feel that I was right there in Auschwitz with the author.

Livia Bitton-Jackson takes you there in living color and she doesn't paint a pretty picture. She is an amazing writer and I'm looking forward to buying more of her books.

This book is really sad. Here is this brave little girl who single-handedly saves her mother and brother from death yet the mother still loves her brother best. I can really relate to this.

This book was greatly written and very emotional. It was recommended to me by a former American History teacher and I was grateful.

Livia Bitton-Jackson's I Have Lived a Thousand Years is her story of life during WWII and the holocaust. Livia, known as Elli, was 13 years old when her family was forced out of their home and sent to Auschwitz. Her brother and father were sent to the male side of the camp, and Livia and her mother were sent to the female side. Because Livia was 13 years old, and still a child, she would have been sent to the gas chambers. But an officer took a liking to Elli's blonde hair, told her to lie and say she was 16, and led her to the path towards the camp, and away from the gas chambers.
Throughout her time at the camp, she and her mother kept each other's strengths up, even through the injury that would permanently disable her mother. They suffered through working in pits of feces, eating congealed soup and drinking from a small, murky water pond. They survived a decimation, and even found Bubi, Elli's brother.
When they found Bubi, they made a vow to stay together and became stronger. They waited until liberation day, but right before they were to be liberated, the SS guards loaded them into cattle cars and in hopes of taking them, shooting them all, and getting rid of the bodies so that the Americans had no way of finding the inmates.
Elli, her mother, and Bubi were all able to survive the cattle cars, the shooting, and made it to see liberation. They returned to their village in hope of hearing good news about Elli's father, but unfortunately, he didn't make it through the war. They have a mourning period and then contact all the people they know in America in hopes of being able to migrate there.
They eventually gain their visas and when Elli sees the beautiful statue of Liberty, she knows that she is home and can start rebuilding her life.
Her story is a story that can touch anyone. It vividly describes her struggles and makes one question how man can be so cruel. The way the book is written makes the reader feel like the author is personally retelling her story to him/her. I highly recommend this book - you will definitely get lost in her words.

I have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson is a disturbingly honest memoir of a thirteen year old Jewish girl living in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. The experience of living in the death camp Auschwitz is graphically shocking and distressing, but also miraculous because she actually survives. The story is told in the voice of Elli, in a direct present tense and, although a bit simple, the words and thoughts do seem to come from the mouth of a teenage girl.
At the beginning, it shows Elli's pending growth from girlhood to womanhood, with her sparked interest in her appearance, her mother's approval and of course boys. While this serves to make the book more realistic, as Elli has typical teenager concerns, it also makes her story even more painful as she is forced to mature and take the place of "mother", without really experiencing her role as a child. The descriptions of her life before the invasion, from her simply house in her hometown to her anxious ambitions of school, cause the reader to identify and bond with her. Thus, when she is ripped from her old life, when her hair is shaven and her family is separated, the reader can better empathize that it is happening to them.
Her detailed writing of life in the concentration camp causes a true emotional disturbance within the reader. The switched roles between her mother and her, the worms in her soup, the physical, mental and psychological abuse is all well documented. While reading this book, there were many times that I had to take a moment. A part of me wanted to put it down because it was so brutally honest but it is that same brutal honesty that made me unable to stop reading for more than ten seconds. The book is written in such a way that the reader experiences her doubts, fears, punishments and hopes, however unrealistic. Surprisingly, the book does not stir contempt for the "other side", as the protagonist does not place direct blame. She is angry, but she sees the other sides as human, making her story even more endearing. In my opinion, the book reminds us of how fragile any situation is but also of how much adversity the human spirit can endure without being broken. Even when broken, there is still hope for renewal as we often underestimate how much we can persevere, especially in today's society where we have so much at our fingertips. The author lived through what many in our society could not being to comprehend because it seems so impossible. It is fitting for people of all ages upward of puberty, and I would especially recommend it to teenagers as it offers an uplifting spirit of hope, as well as a renewed gratefulness and encouraged perspective of life.

I Have Lived a Thousand Lives by Livia Bitton-Jackson, is an inspiring story about the holocaust, teaches the lesson never to give up. Elli, her Jewish name, is a 13 year old girl who is still discovering the world, until the German soldiers raid her town and make every Jewish family move into a ghetto. Elli loved this idea at first because she is with other Jewish kids just like her. Unfortunately, Elli is still young and didn't think one would be prosecuted because of her religion.
Elli's father is taken away, and that is when Elli realizes something is wrong because she was close to her father and he would never leave his family if nothing was wrong. Elli and the rest of the ghetto were then forced into the concentration camps. Elli, oblivious to what is happening in the world, does not know the journey she is about to face.
I recommend I Have Lived a Thousand Years because of Elli's message "never give up." Through this horrifying experience a thirteen year old girl will make the biggest transformation of her life; not just physically but as a person all around she will change. Beginning as a young girl still ready to play everyday, she becomes a women who learns to care and take matters into her own hands.

Eric Barlow
4/27/06


I Have Lived a Thousand Years

This book is a great read for anyone who likes to see lots of character change and yet at the same time not much at all. Thirteen-year-old Elli Friedmann is taken from her home along with the rest of her family and placed in one of the many ghettos that have sprung up all over Europe. She is barely aware of the seriousness of her situation at first, but as she is taken from the ghetto and placed in a concentration camp she slowly begins to realize the magnitude of her predicament. Throughout this book Elli is solely concerned for the safety and welfare of her mother but she consistently ignores her need for safety. During this book you might realize as I did that it is her child-like innocence that sustains her throughout her entire ordeal and keeps her from going totally insane. This book is not for the squeamish, there are a few parts that might make you cringe, but over all it is not that gory. I would recommend reading this book for not only the context and content of it, but also to get a look into the most pure and innocent side of human nature as well as that of the dark side of the human soul.

I Have Lived a Thousand Years, written by Livia Bitton-Jackson. It is a story of a young thirteen-year-old girl growing up during the time of the Holocaust. Her name was Elli Friedmann. Elli grew up in Czechoslovakia, with her family, which is then invaded by the German Nazis. Then Elli and her family were moved to a Jewish Ghetto. the name of this ghetto was Nagymagyar. Elli and her family were then moved to a concentration camp. In this camp Elli and her family went threw what most people learn about when they study the Holocaust.

The reason i gave this book 5 stars is because it takes you from her life in Czechoslovakia, threw her hardships being a young Jewish girl and overcoming all her odds and ending up in America. This story can make you cry, laugh, be angry, feel sorry and frustrated. Yes, one could say that this book can be a "good day buster." But at the same time you must look at it as a learning tool. This book puts you in the life of Elli Friedmann and her family. It is almost as if you were right there with her during the whole experience. If anyone came too me and asked me if they should read this book. I would with out a doubt tell them to read it.

" I Have Lived a Thousand Years" is about the struggle of a young Jewish girl named Elli and her family during the Holocaust. The new Nazi rule forces the Jews to live up their possession, their freedoms, and their identity. I have read other Holocaust books and I found this book to not bring anything new to the table. It seams to be exactly the same as all the other books, making this book not as interesting as it could be. On the other hand, I found the book to carry a good message; we have grown out of touch with our sensitivity and tolerance of human suffering. I think this book could have been better if the plot something new, but it did carry a carried a strong message.

I have just finished the book, "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" by Livia Button Jackson. Personally, if I were to rate this book on a scale one to ten, with ten being the highest, I would give this book a nine. This book had a lot of interesting details and was very descriptive, which made the book hard to put down. I enjoyed this book very much because I have done many projects on this same subject, the holocaust. This book taught me even more about the events of that period in time. This story had a lot of meaning to me, because when I read about what this girl endured during that horrifying time and she survived.

This book was about a 13 year old girl named, Elli and her family being sent to a concentration camp; where she goes through many tough times and witnesses many horrifying things, yet she still fights through it. She and her mother are being transferred to another camp, when the car is stopped by Americans and are miraculously set free. Then Germany finally surrenders and Elli is able to go back to school and wait to be emigrated to the United States. I would definitely recommend this book to my family and friends because I know they will enjoy just as I do.

I have just finished the book, "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" by Livia Button Jackson. Personally, if I were to rate this book on a scale one to ten, with ten being the highest, I would give this book a nine. This book had a lot of interesting details and was very descriptive, which made the book hard to put down. I enjoyed this book very much because I have done many projects on this same subject, the holocaust. This book taught me even more about the events of that period in time. This story had a lot of meaning to me, because when I read about what this girl endured during that horrifying time and she survived.

This book was about a 13 year old girl named, Elli and her family being sent to a concentration camp; where she goes through many tough times and witnesses many horrifying things, yet she still fights through it. She and her mother are being transferred to another camp, when the car is stopped by Americans and are miraculously set free. Then Germany finally surrenders and Elli is able to go back to school and wait to be emigrated to the United States. I would definitely recommend this book to my family and friends because I know they will enjoy just as I do.

Recently I have read, I Have Lived a Thousand Years. This book is about a 13 year old Jewish girl who is in the Holocaust in 1944. She lived in Czechoslovakia, which was under control of the Hungarians in 1944, which was invaded by the German Nazis. Her and her family were later taken to the Jewish ghetto, of Nagymagyar and then later taken to a concentration camp called Auschwitz where they later experience the true horrors of the Holocaust.

I liked this book because it was full of action and it touched my life. This book was also full of suspense and it made me wonder what was coming next and it made me read more. It showed me how lucky I am not to be living in the time of the Holocaust and living now as a free Jewish American. It showed me how cruel the German Nazis were and how the Jews tried to survive the Holocaust. It also was written from someone who was there in true life instead of historians writing about this in a textbook which makes it more interesting. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the Holocaust from a real person's real life experience and perspective that was there.

My tenth grade English class read I have Lived A Thousand Years for our Holocaust learning period. This book is about a thirteen year old girl who gets sent to a bunch of different concentration camps with what remains of her family. It clearly shows the struggle and the difficulties of the main character in the book as she tries to survive the Holocaust of WWII. The very descriptive book gave me a good idea of what was going on during the Holocaust and it helped me understand the struggles that Jewish people had to go through during this time. The book also held my interest through the end. This book is one of the easier books to keep reading. I Have Lived A Thousand Years is a good book and I liked it so much I finished it in three days.

As an avid reader of material regarding the Holocaust and WWII, I was delighted to find this book at a used book store. "I Have Lived A Thousand Years" offers an interesting perspective on the events of the Holocaust. Written by Livia Bitton-Jackson as an adult, the author transports herself back to her teenage years when her world was forever shattered by Nazi designs.

The author, born Elli Friedmann, was thirteen years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary and turned her world upside down. She succinctly details the loss of freedom Jews suffered at the hands of their invaders before they were enslaved in first the ghetto, with concentration camps soon to follow. Elli is miraculously lucky in the fact that she is able to stay with her mother her entire time in the camps; in fact, it is a miracle that she was selected to live at all (as she was only chosen for her golden braids). Bitton-Jackson tells with grave beauty and pain the trials and small triumphs that populated her young world until liberation finally came.

"I Have Lived A Thousand Years" is a bittersweet chronicle of the power of faith and perseverance. The author never lost hope that she would somehow survive the horrors that she witnessed day after day. Her testament is a worthy addition to the literature of the Holocaust, and one that younger readers will be able to identify with.

I Have Lived a Thousand Years, written by Livia Bitton-Jackson, is the story of a young thirteen-year-old girl growing up during the Holocaust. Elli Friedmann is a normal girl-tall, blonde, and smart. But one thing separates her and is the cause of constant suffering over the course of a year. That thing is being a Jew. Elli and her mother are alienated from Elli's father and brother at the beginning of World War II. As she and her mother are taken to various concentration camps in Europe, Elli must learn to survive, without food and water for sometimes up to a week. At one point, Elli must even take care of her partially paralyzed mother. Along the way in the camps, Elli makes friends, whom she loses to gas chambers and gunfire. As the war comes to an end, Elli and her mother reunite with Bubi, Elli's older brother. However, they later find out that their father sadly died. When American soldiers finally liberate them, the Friedmann family comes home to an empty house. Elli, her mother, and her brother decide to travel to America, where they vow never to be apart again.
I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a deeply moving book. It was so descriptive, breathtaking, and heart wrenching that anyone who reads it will immediately fall in love. The tragic, true story of Elli Friedmann (now Livia Bitton-Jackson) perfectly depicts the horrors and cruelty of the Holocaust. Poor Elli, only a teenager, has to program herself to do every possible thing to survive. Malnutrition, abuse, and humiliation are just a few of the terrible things she is forced to endure. Throughout all the bruises and blood, Elli keeps her faith that the war will end soon, along with the appalling lifestyle at the camps. Yet when the war concludes, and Elli is welcomed back with a raided, dirty house, she still carries hope for the future. I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a truly inspirational and magnificent book.

I Have Lived a Thousand Years is about 12-year-old Elli, her mother, and brother, Bubi. She is taken from her home in Somorja,to a ghetto. Then she goes to many concentration camps,leading up to Auschwitz. When the war is over, Elli and her mother re-find Bubi, and move to New York City.

I just finished this book in class yesreday. I must warn you: You will most likely cry, leap for joy, and maybe even re-read this again, like I am now!=)

This story was so engrossing and well-written, I believe I read it in about two hours. The following month, I suggested the library at my school order it for their students. In addition, I assigned it to my 8th graders for a book report. It's a sad, tragic part of history, but stillt this young girl's survival will leave you with joy in your heart and her story in your memory forever! Definitely worth buying!

Nothing like a first person retelling to bring the evil of WW II in Europe alive. Well done from teen's perspective.

I would very much recommend this book. It really opens your eyes to the horrors that happened during this time. I learned a lot about courage and being able to survive in harsh conditions. This book much very much a page-turner. Once I started reading I couldn't stop. It makes you think. I also love this genre. Reading about experiences from a primary source is wonderful. Also, people who enjoy history and reading about things in the past from people who actually experienced it would love this book. There were some surprises in the story. One was seeing how cruel the guards and soldiers were to the prisoners. I knew they were mean, but I had no idea they were like monsters.
The way the author wrote helped the book, I think. The way the author is very blunt and doesn't try to hide certain facts is refreshing. I also liked how there was a lot of dialogue. Also, even though there were no pictures, you can always picture the scene in your mind. The author uses very vivid words.
Seeing how the young girl and her mother survive through being separated, tortured, and one of them getting hurt, it very much makes me want to strengthen my relationship with my own mother. These women survived so many things, it makes cleaning my room or eating broccoli easier. I can apply the courage these women showed to doing something I am afraid of. Like diving off a cliff, or going through white water.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years is about a Jewish girl who a has to go to a Nazi camp. She has to give up all she has and is treated horribly. Her dad dies when she is away at a Nazi camp. When she comes back to her home after she has been liberated her house is all dusty. Then they went to America to go to school and stay together as a family. I thought that this was an interesting book. Some parts were boring though because, it was all about the same type of stuff. I felt really bad for her. So all in all this was an alright book.

If you haven't already read this book....READ IT!!!!!!. This book is a non-fiction story of a Holocaust survivor. Jackson tells of horrifying experiences and the descriptions may be very graphic, but they are very descriptive; they tell us how everything looked and felt like. This book is one of the BEST books I have ever read. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!

I read this book. I still think of it even months after I read it. Livia, you are a modern day heroin. How can you even breath after going through something like that? What makes you want to go on? How can people turn into what you describe. Horrendous!

Thank you for writing this book. All must read this.

This book was very dramatic and at the same time very heartwarming. In the begining of the book it went by very slow and I wanted to stop the book. It began to get interesting toward the late middle of the book. I like to read books about the Holecost because it is so real. I also read The Cage, and I think that book was a lot better than this one. Livia Bitton-Jackson who is a survivor from the holocaust wrote I Have Lived a Thousand Years and she tells her a very dramatic story. The holocaust was a terrible time for Jews. The Nazi's did terrible things to the Jews, such as, they were striped of all of their positions, they were gassed,tortured, starved, forced to work and some were even the subject of medical experiments.The main character was a girl named Elli. She lives with her mother father and her little brother Bubi. Elli is a happy girl that lives in a small town called Somorja. She goes to school but always dreams of going to a Budapest school because it's in a much nicer town. Hitler and his soldiers came into her town and captured Elli and her family. Bubi was able to escape from the Nazi's and got on a train and left town. Elli her mother and father were captured. Elli and her family were shipped off to the concentration camps where they had to wear yellow stars on their chests- a sign that they were Jews. Hitler took away pretty much everything from them. They couldn't talk to anyone and if they didn't do what they were told they were killed. They were also forced to give the Nazi's their jewelry and belongings. Later on Elli and her family and a few other families were shipped off into the Ghetto, which was a smaller camp. The Germans took away all of their books and the rest of their possessions and burned them.
Three days later they arrived at a concentration camp called Auschwitz. They had survived the journey but were very sick and weak because they hadn't eaten in four days. The Germans separated the children from the adults. Elli was thirteen and would have been separated from her mother, but for some reason the soldier saw that Elli had blonde hair and let her go with her mother. All of the children were killed in the gas chambers. After they were sorted and separated the Germans made them shave their heads bald and gave them gray gowns and were the ugliest things ever. The Germans forced the Jews into slavery. They were forced into labor and were starved.he book forces the reader to think about some really horrible stuff. But the reader does get to see how Elli gets out of this terrible life, how she survives, and how she goes on living I thought that was pretty cool. This book had its ups and its downs. My favorite thing about this book was defiantly the topic. I think the holocaust was a very interesting time to learn about, except I couldn't believe that there were really people out there that could torture people like that just because of there religion or skin color. One of the things I really like was that the book really got into great detail about Elli and her adventures of the camps. I could really picture all of the camps and everyone in my head, and what went on through out the story.