Embedded Files
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
In 1939, on her way to a foster home in Molching, Germany, 9-year-old Liesel steals the first book she's ever known -- from a graveyard. From that moment on, through 1943, her life revolves around books stolen, books given, and books written. Death is the narrator and tells the story of this young orphan girl as "an attempt--flying jump of an attempt--to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it." Major themes include: literacy and power, as Liesel learns to read, explores words with Max, and even paints over sections of Mein Kampf; love and hate in human nature, as we see acts of genuine kindness toward the Jews, particularly in hiding Max, and also acts of horror and torment from the Nazis.
Review from Booklist Reviews:
Death is the narrator of this lengthy, powerful story of a town in Nazi Germany. He is a kindly, caring Death, overwhelmed by the souls he has to collect from people in the gas chambers, from soldiers on the battlefields, and from civilians killed in bombings. Death focuses on a young orphan, Liesl; her loving foster parents; the Jewish fugitive they are hiding; and a wild but gentle teen neighbor, Rudy, who defies the Hitler Youth and convinces Liesl to steal for fun. After Liesl learns to read, she steals books from everywhere. When she reads a book in the bomb shelter, even a Nazi woman is enthralled. Then the book thief writes her own story. There's too much commentary at the outset, and too much switching from past to present time, but as in Zusak's enthralling I Am the Messenger (2004), the astonishing characters, drawn without sentimentality, will grab readers. More than the overt message about the power of words, it's Liesl's confrontation with horrifying cruelty and her discovery of kindness in unexpected places that tell the heartbreaking truth.
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