The Book Thief - Makus Zusak

Finally, I'm to the YA books, but interestingly I re-read this book for my grown up book club. and I wasn't even the person to suggest it! Love, love, love this Printz honor book by Markus Zusak, an Australian author. This book, however, is not an easy read. It is very long, over 500 pages, and it is a Holocaust novel, so the themes are challenging. And the narrator of this book is quite unique as well. The story is narrated by Death. This may make it sound even more ominous, but actually the portrayal of death is something we discussed at book club last night, and Death is actually portrayed as a kind, benevolent, and even thoughtful "being", not the Grim Reaper vision we often associate with death.

Liesel Meminger, who is only nine or ten when this book begins, is sent to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann as a foster child in Nazi Germany. She arrives there plagued by nightmares and behind in school, and is soothed and aided every night by the very caring Hans Hubermann. Liesel forms an incredible bond with Hans, and without him, I believe she would not have survived the emotional traumas of her young life. Not only did Hans provide her with shelter and emotional support, but he taught her, slowly, painstakingly, how to read, even though he wasn't the best reader himself. And of course a Book Thief would not have been able to survive without knowing how to read.

This, too, is a story of powerful character development, not only of Liesel and Hans, but of her foster mother, of the crazy mayor's wife, of Max who's a Jew hiding in teh basement of the Hubermann's home, of the boy next door (Rudy), of Death, and again, of many more minor characters in the story. But this story also has very strong writing, including amazing descriptions, and very strong plot development. It is an incredibly well rounded piece of literature which tells a similar story to others that have been written in the Holocaust genre, but in a different and very interesting way. Zusak pulls his readers in and pulls them along, uniquely using foreshadowing and interruptions in the text to increase tension and compel readers to continue the story.

I highly recommend this book to mature readers - YAs AND adults who have an interest in Holocaust literature. It's a fascinating book that will not disappoint.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

This 552(!) page novel is a Printz Honor book for this year and is a fascinating and at the same time very distressing book to read. The book is about the Holocaust, and though it has very little in the way of graphic violence, I find most books about this time period to be distressing simply due to the nature of waht was happening. Adding to that, the narrator of this book is Death, a point of view which I have never encountered in a novel before. It's really an intriguing perspective. Dark, but very compelling. Death appears quite compassionate in this novel, not what one might think.

The story is set in Germany during World War II and when nine-year old Liesel, the main character, arrives at her foster home she does not know how to read. Despite this fact, she has begun her career as a book thief already, stealing the gravedigger’s manual from the graveyard where they buried her younger brother on the journey to her new home in Molching with Rosa and Hans Huberman.

Hans Huberman helps Liesel through this most difficult transition in her young life by teaching her to read, and via the Gravedigger’s Handbook she learns the power of words, a power which she will use to get not only herself through difficult times in a war torn country but also those in her neighborhood who must join her frequently in their air raid shelter. There, Leisel helps to calm everyone’s nerves by taking their minds off the bombing with the stories she reads aloud. Her sources for books are varied. A few she is given, like the one the Jewish refugee Max who is hiding in their basement makes for her, but others she steals, from Nazi book burnings and even from the mayor’s wife (well, she sort of steals these).

This beautifully written book is powerful and intense, but should be read only by mature readers because of the mature themes in the story.