Author: Markus Zusak
Year: 2006
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 550
Reading Level: Young Adult
Awards: 2007 ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award, 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor, 2007 Ten Best Books for Young Adults, and many others
Genre: Historical Fiction/World War II
Location: Molching, Germany (just outside of Munich)
Time Period: 1930's and 40's (World War II)
Plot: On the way to stay with foster parents in Molching, Germany, Liesel Meminger's brother dies. Traumatized by the event, Liesel has a recurring nightmare about the incident. Liesel eventually learns to deal with her grief in a number of ways: She learns to read with the help of her step-father, Hans, and a select number of books she steals throughout the story. She becomes best friends with her next door neighbor, Rudy Steiner. She visits the mayor's wife, and learns of her story. When air raids come, she reads to her neighbors as they wait together in a bomb shelter. She makes fast friends with Max, a Jew her parents are hiding from the Nazis in their basement. Leisel then writes of all of these experiences in a journal, which Death later finds, reads, and relates to the reader. SPOILER! Leisel is up late one night, writing in her journal, when the street she lives on is hit in an air raid. Everyone who lives on the street dies except for Liesel, who is eventually reunited with Rudy's father and Max.
Comments: This book may look daunting, but the author writes in a very clipped, short style that makes the book easy to get through. I never consciously sat down to read this book. I read it in stolen moments, and got through a lot of it that way.
The idea of having Death as the narrator is an interesting one. Despite all of the red flags written below, this book didn't seem too gruesome to me. It is a war story, so that must be kept in mind, but Death tries to find a kind of poetry in the world around him that makes the concept easier to deal with. However, Death is also extremely snarky, and his dark sense of humor sometimes got a little old. Take the last line of the book: "I am haunted by humans."
The best part of this book was the characters. They all seemed very fleshed out and very real to me. Liesel's step-father is so loving and kind you want to give him a great big hug. Liesel's step-mother is the typical hard-shell-on-the-outside, warm-and-caring-on-the-inside person. And Liesel's best friend, Rudy Steiner, steals the show. I kept rooting for him to succeed, even though he kept getting beaten down. Even minor characters such as the lady down the street and the mayor's wife have endearing qualities. Liesel was a real person to me, but having Death as the narrator made her not as fleshed out as she could be. I wanted to hear the story in her voice.
Although I liked the tone of the book, as set by Death's strange little asides and jokes, I also found the writing style somewhat annoying. Death is not a good storyteller. He gives away major plot points 50 or 100 pages before you even want to know them, and when you do get to the critical part, it doesn't seem as momentous because he'd already told the main points of the story eons ago, and he doesn't repeat them.
Overall, I liked the book. I liked the message, I loved the characters, and for the most part, I liked the writing style. I just wish the narrator had built up the climax a little more.
Themes: World War II, Nazi Party, Jews, Stealing, Friendship, Love, Books, Standing up for what you believe in, Death
Red Flags: Profuse swearing (mostly in German, so you can't understand it); Description of some of the lighter effects of war--a man comes back from war with a bloody stump for a hand, bombings, air raids, plane crash, Death talks about all of the casualties of war he has to pick up, etc.; Emaciated Jews are forced to march through the city streets; Death describes his job; Stealing books, food, etc.; Bullies.
Multicultural Elements: Max is a German Jew.
Year: 2006
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 550
Reading Level: Young Adult
Awards: 2007 ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award, 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor, 2007 Ten Best Books for Young Adults, and many others
Genre: Historical Fiction/World War II
Location: Molching, Germany (just outside of Munich)
Time Period: 1930's and 40's (World War II)
Plot: On the way to stay with foster parents in Molching, Germany, Liesel Meminger's brother dies. Traumatized by the event, Liesel has a recurring nightmare about the incident. Liesel eventually learns to deal with her grief in a number of ways: She learns to read with the help of her step-father, Hans, and a select number of books she steals throughout the story. She becomes best friends with her next door neighbor, Rudy Steiner. She visits the mayor's wife, and learns of her story. When air raids come, she reads to her neighbors as they wait together in a bomb shelter. She makes fast friends with Max, a Jew her parents are hiding from the Nazis in their basement. Leisel then writes of all of these experiences in a journal, which Death later finds, reads, and relates to the reader. SPOILER! Leisel is up late one night, writing in her journal, when the street she lives on is hit in an air raid. Everyone who lives on the street dies except for Liesel, who is eventually reunited with Rudy's father and Max.
Comments: This book may look daunting, but the author writes in a very clipped, short style that makes the book easy to get through. I never consciously sat down to read this book. I read it in stolen moments, and got through a lot of it that way.
The idea of having Death as the narrator is an interesting one. Despite all of the red flags written below, this book didn't seem too gruesome to me. It is a war story, so that must be kept in mind, but Death tries to find a kind of poetry in the world around him that makes the concept easier to deal with. However, Death is also extremely snarky, and his dark sense of humor sometimes got a little old. Take the last line of the book: "I am haunted by humans."
The best part of this book was the characters. They all seemed very fleshed out and very real to me. Liesel's step-father is so loving and kind you want to give him a great big hug. Liesel's step-mother is the typical hard-shell-on-the-outside, warm-and-caring-on-the-inside person. And Liesel's best friend, Rudy Steiner, steals the show. I kept rooting for him to succeed, even though he kept getting beaten down. Even minor characters such as the lady down the street and the mayor's wife have endearing qualities. Liesel was a real person to me, but having Death as the narrator made her not as fleshed out as she could be. I wanted to hear the story in her voice.
Although I liked the tone of the book, as set by Death's strange little asides and jokes, I also found the writing style somewhat annoying. Death is not a good storyteller. He gives away major plot points 50 or 100 pages before you even want to know them, and when you do get to the critical part, it doesn't seem as momentous because he'd already told the main points of the story eons ago, and he doesn't repeat them.
Overall, I liked the book. I liked the message, I loved the characters, and for the most part, I liked the writing style. I just wish the narrator had built up the climax a little more.
Themes: World War II, Nazi Party, Jews, Stealing, Friendship, Love, Books, Standing up for what you believe in, Death
Red Flags: Profuse swearing (mostly in German, so you can't understand it); Description of some of the lighter effects of war--a man comes back from war with a bloody stump for a hand, bombings, air raids, plane crash, Death talks about all of the casualties of war he has to pick up, etc.; Emaciated Jews are forced to march through the city streets; Death describes his job; Stealing books, food, etc.; Bullies.
Multicultural Elements: Max is a German Jew.
