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The Book Thief
 | The Book Thief Markus Zusak Date: 14 March, 2006 — $11.53 — Book Rating: |
The Book Thief by Printz Honor winner Markus Zusak is wonderful, literary story dealing with the tough subjects of life during war time and the Holocaust. It is not an easy book to read, but the language and stories are beautiful and compelling.
After the death of her brother, Liesel goes to live with a foster family in a small German town where she discovers reading and the power of words and even love. The characters do wonderful things to help others, whether friends, family or strangers, even though they don’t have to, even though it could get them punished or even killed. It is these events that the narrator Death relates. He admits that he doesn’t quite understand humans, but wants these people and events to be remembered, wants others to know.
Using Death as the narrator makes some of the events seem detached, which heightens the intensity as the story moves forward and the reader becomes involved and invested in the characters. Like Death, the reader is drawn in by what is happening and starts to care, wanting to know how everything turns out. While all the characters are aware of the nearness of Death, this is a book about life, about hope, about survival. It is also a book about books, about words, and the power that words have to move and persuade and give comfort to others.
This would be an excellent book to suggest to teachers for units on the Holocaust, to have students read along side The Diary of Anne Frank or other titles. It may take some book talking or hand selling to get your teens interested, but for the right teen, I think this could be a very special and meaningful book.
I was just about to blog this myself! I would give it 4 stars, mostly
because I didn't like the format and the narrator got really annoying. I
only read this novel for a book club, and if it wasn't for the fact that I
was hosting, I probably would have stopped reading 30 pages in. The
problem is the format -- each chapter is basically a bunch of seemingly
random vignettes. You have to try to piece together the story from these
brief glimpses. There are so many paragraph-length vignettes that it's
hard to get into the story. There was no momentum building and so many
convenient stopping places, that I would find that I had just stopped
reading.
I think I gave it the 5 stars for literary quality and uniqueness, if that
makes sense. I can see your point, but I can also tell you that this is a
book I would have loved as a teen, as it really sort of swept me into the
characters lives. Certainly not a book for everyone, I agree.
Makes sense. After all, it is still on the New York Times Best Sellers
list for children's chapter books.
I gave this book 5 stars. I found death as the narator entertaining but I
do acknowledge that books are different to everyone and personal to each
reader.