SSR: The Book Thief

An interesting aspect of the book I read this semester is the point of view: Liesel Meminger’s story is told from death’s perspective, as if death were a person, or a spirit floating around taking souls from lifeless bodies and delivering them to heaven or hell. Death encounters countless bodies every day and many stories behind their decent into lifelessness, but the one story that seems to interest him at all is that of young Liesel Meminger. Having encountered her three times at other people’s death sites before her own death, the narrator finds an interest in her life when he finds a little notebook detailing the events of her life that lead to the deaths of three people she loved and the happenings in between these occurrences.

The Book Thief is a novel by Markus Zusak. Growing up during the time of World War II and Hitler’s rise to power, Liesel encounters countless struggles after losing her brother on the train that was supposed to take them to Munich, Germany. The purpose of this train ride was to deliver them from their mother’s hands to a new family that might be more able to take care of them. Due partially to the fact that she did not know the new people (and maybe because she had just lost a loved one) Liesel was trouble for a while in the strange new house. She refused to take a bath for weeks, had nightmares in the middle of the night, and drove the woman of the house crazy most of the time. Nevertheless, Liesel eventually began changing to her normal self again after a few middle-of-the-night talks with Hans Huberman, the man of the house and Liesel’s new foster father. Hans Huberman would help her after her nightmares every night, teach her how to read, and eventually enroll her into school.

After making a friend in the neighborhood by the name of Rudy Steiner, she gets invited to play games with all the neighborhood kids. As begins the slow and awkward acceptance by many of the other children, Rudy starts to develop an infatuation with Liesel which Liesel tries her best to ignore. Liesel learns to read very well and finds great joy in getting her hands on any books possible. She is soon known to the narrator as “the book thief” as she begins stealing a few books from certain people. There is much more to the story than I have told, but there is no way to describe the awesomeness of this book without giving away some of the secrets and surprises that pop up out of nowhere and make this story one of those books that’s impossible to put down. It’s deep and meaningful and I recommend it to anyone to read.

by: Christina Overholtzer (per. 5)