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Product Description
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Gr. 10-12. 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. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Book Thief...magnificent!,
By
This review is from: The Book Thief (Hardcover)
An incredibly beautiful book!This is a story of a young German girl abandoned in the late 1930's and her ordeal of survival over the war years in Nazi Germany. The story is told by the personified spirit of Death; a sympathetic Death who is so worn out and so tired from the countless millenniums of collecting souls. A Death so discouraged by man's inhumanity to man that when is sees something special in our heroine (the book thief) he decides to follow her story over the next few years. Deeply, deeply moving, insightful and, as is often the case in periods of dire circumstance, occasionally humorous. There were moments of profound revelation, moments of quiet discovery that took my breath away; moments when it was difficult not to stop reading and reflect on what one has just read. Reading this book reminded me somewhat of "The Diary of Anne Franck" and although the stories were completely different there was a connection because of the era involved and the wonderful, emotional impact of the written word on the page. All in all, a beautiful, compelling story. Highly recommended! 5 Stars, more if I could. P.S. surprisingly enough this book is found in the young adult section of most book stores; this I feel is a inappropriate classification. This novel really is an adult book and should be placed as such.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too,
By TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Book Thief (Paperback)
THE BOOK THIEF is on of the most memorable books I've read in a long time. It takes place during World War II in Molching, Germany. It's the writing, the unusual narrator (death), and the characters sketched in vivid colors that make this novel so difficult to put down.Meet Leisel, the book thief, whose first encounter with death occurs on a train with her mama and brother - on their way to meet her foster parents. Meet Rosa Hubermann, Leisel's new mama, whose rough, crude exterior can't hide the heart inside. Meet Hans Hubermann, Leisel's firm foundation. The man who stays up with her after her nightmares, who teaches her to read her first stolen book, who finds empathy in a slice of stale bread. Meet Max, a Jew, the shadow in the basement, a skeleton later seen marching, or more aptly, stumbling, down the road. Meet Rudy, the lemon-haired Jesse Owens, Leisel's partner in crime and best friend, the one who yearns for Leisel's kiss. Meet the Führer, the invisible, potent master of words. Meet death, in a metal cockpit, on a snow-covered field mottled in red, hanging from a rafter at the end of a rope, sitting at a simple kitchen table, under a pile of rubble that used to be a home. Markus Zusak fills the reader with vivid images of humans at war, humans led to the unthinkable by a force they cannot control. Some go willingly, others have no choice. Those left behind are merely attempting to survive each day as life crumbles around them. Leisel survives by stealing books. As I read the final chapters of THE BOOK THIEF, I literally had to close the book to get my emotions under control before reading on to meet death. It was inevitable -- he would meet me at the end of the book. As I emerged from the story at the turning of the back cover, my reality felt so jarringly wrong. It was as though I went from a black and white silent movie to a new world: bright, free, and colorful. You cannot read this novel without feeling a resounding resolve that this should never, ever, happen again. The writing is incredible. Mr. Zusak gave death such an unusual perspective. His descriptive phrases are nothing short of brilliant. THE BOOK THIEF is a powerful read that should not be missed by anyone, teen or adult! Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Historical Novel with a Huge Heart, Many Worthwhile Messages, and an Unusual Narrative Perspective,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: The Book Thief (Paperback)
"So I looked, and behold, a pale horse.And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him." --Revelation 6:8 I'm sure that at least several hundred reviews of The Book Thief have summarized it far better than I could. Let me address something else: Many people don't think they want to read another story about Nazi Germany filled with lots of inhumanity. I suspect that reason is why I waited for a long time to read this highly regarded novel. While The Book Thief is based in Nazi Germany and will give you more than you think about each day in terms of terrible things that happened then and there, it would be wrong to think of this book as being another morality play presented in that context. The Book Thief in instead a testament to the importance of love, the value of truthful words in opposing untruthful ones, and the inevitability of guilt. As a result, this is a positive book. Will you be sad after reading it? Sure. I know that I was. But Mr. Zusak has a very nice writing style that gently prepares you for what's coming while still switching the actual results around from the obvious just enough to make the story interesting to continue reading. He never kicks you when your emotions are down. As a result, you can bear reading about more suffering than you think you can. It's a gift. I think one of the great values of this book is that it will encourage many people who don't think about death to wonder about what happens after they die. "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" -- 1 Corinthians 15:55 " . . . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." -- Romans 10:9
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