The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
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Audience: Young Adult
Rating: A
Synopsis:
Liesel is growing up in Nazi Germany. She craves words and finds herself stealing books to satisfy her hunger – at the same time Jews are being stolen from their homes. These two worlds collide when Max, a German Jew, comes to hide at Liesel’s house and creates a book just for her. Liesel’s world is full of secrets, silence, and sadness – and the narrator of this book has a stunning perspective on it all. Liesel’s story is told by Death as he circles around her, claiming the lives of those she loves.
Chatter:
(Spoiler Alerts! ) The prose in this book is unlike any I’ve read before. Zusak’s interpretation of Death as both poetic and a curious observer of humanity is a surprise and is very effective. His playfulness with words is beautiful and startling. There were so many sentences I loved because the surprising combination of words created such a vivid image.
Rudy was my favorite character and I cried when he died– even though the reader is warned repeatedly that he won’t survive. It takes a lot to make me cry over a book, but this book broke my heart. How could you not love a boy who blackens himself to be Jesse Owens, swims in freezing water to save Liesel’s book, and tucks a teddy bear in with a dying pilot? The scene where Liesel kisses Rudy was so poignant.
Max was my other favorite and the part where Liesel walks beside him on his way back to the concentration camp was devastating. I thought that this would be the last time she saw him – and it’s ironic that frail Max survives the war while robust Rosa doesn’t.
The death of Rosa and the others on Himmel Street was a shock to me. I’d expected Rudy to die (Death had warned us of that), but for everyone but Liesel to perish, that stunned me. I needed to read and re-read those sentences a few times before they sunk in.
Questions:
How do you think Liesel and Max’s friendship evolved after the war?
How would Liesel’s version of the “The Book Thief” have differed from Death’s?
Which was your favorite character?
Which part of the book did you find the most poignant?
Keep reading!
Paige
Josette Says:
Hi there, yeah, I thought this was a great book. One of the few good ones around. I cried too at the part where Liesel found out everyone in her family had died, including her neighbours. That was so heart-breaking. I was so familiar with them and it was sad that they didn’t make it.
My favourite character would be Max. I don’t know, I just liked his character and I was touched with his relationship with Liesel. Yes, the part where he was walking towards the concentration camp with Liesel following him was totally poignant. That’s one of my favourite parts in the book.
I’d like to think that Max and Liesel got married after that, you know, for a happily ever after kind of ending. But then, it’d seem a bit weird though. Zusak did mention that it was up to the reader to interpret their relationship after the book ended.
Besides this book, I enjoyed The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas too. A different take on the Holocaust.
Here’s my review of The Book Thief.
Paige Says:
Wow!
I thought this was an amazing book, and I cried when everyone died. Even though I saw it coming, it still hit like a bomb. It was really eye-opening, because I always thought all the people in Nazi Germany followed Hitler. I was touched greatly by The Book Thief. I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., and I still thought this book was more interesting and relative to the actual Holocaust.