Author- Markus Zusak
ISBN - 9780375931000
Publication - 2005
Plot - Death is the Narrator of the Book Thief, a novel set during WWII Nazi Germany. Certainly death would be a large participant in the action during this time as Hitler took and exterminated millions of Jews and other people who did not fit his vision of the Aryan race.
In this story he follows the life of a girl,Liesel, who is intricately involved with several people during this time period. She has to deal with relationships with her foster parents and how to adjust with that. She then deals with the arrival of Max Vandenburg. As she is dealing with enough of her problems already she has to learn how to handle his arrival as he is a Jewish fist fighter who would be in serious danger if they found him hiding in her foster parents home. Hans, her foster father, was saved by Max father during World War I and feels a debt towards him. The Nazis get a little too heavy handed with Hans as he is helping people and this convinces them to try to move Max elsewhere but he takes off on his own. Eventually the conscript Hans to go into the army.
Liesel ends up beginning to write a book about her experiences, called the Book Thief. In it she documents her fascination with books and with writing, beginning with her taking a book her brother would drop as he was dying in the snow. Eventually the writing of this book would lead Liesel to being the only survivor of the family as she was writing in the basement of the family home and everyone above was killed by bombs. In despair she leaves the book which Death ends up finding. Death eventually gets the epilogue of the book.
Critical Review - It is telling that Death reveals at the end of the novel that he is haunted by humans, as the readers are haunted by the characters that walk around in this book. Vivid portrayals of death abound, not only the literal death who narrates the story that we are beholding, but horrific scenes of it in one of the most deadly times in the history of the world. We are stuck with images of dying brothers and friends and family and lovers, all of whom are torn asunder by the goings on. Despite this fact, the book maintains an air of lightness about it that does not allow the reader to be bogged down by all the horror surrounding us. And death himself is an almost unwilling participant in the goings on. War is a cruel master for death as he has so much to do. And he is especially grieved as he finds Rudy dead after the bombings and sees Liesel there to wrap up his life in a kiss. He sees in this moment all of the potential gone in a flash. Both amazingly written and deftly created to suit a teenage audience, Zusak weaves a tale of heartache and beauty that will stick with you long past the closing of its pages.
Reader's Annotation - Who would be best suited to tell the story of the horrors of war? Who would be best suited to know the misery and the pain it causes? Who could tell the harrowing tale of the death of the Jews and many others during the time of Nazi Germany? There is no one better to tell that tale than Death.
About the Author - Zusak was born of immigrant parents to Austrailia. His father was Austrian and his mother German. They both had harrowing tales of the Nazis and death camps and marching Jewish people off to die during this time. These stories would eventually lead him to write about The Book Thief.
Zusak had a love of literature which was developed from an early age. After reading classics like The Old Man and the Sea, and more modern novels like What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Zusak knew that he wanted to become a writer. This love of reading and for language also found its way into the drama that is the Book Theif. Liesel's character, not only taking a book at the beginning and pilfering books off of book burnings, but her eventually deciding to write one herself was emblematic of the joy he took in writing and story telling.
Genre- Dramatic Literature
Curriculum Ties - Have students read a different novel of the holocaust as opposed to the diary of Anne Frank. Compare and contrast the two novels portrayal of the time period. - Literature
Have students make a connection to the time period by reading novels set in World War II Germany - History
Compare and contrast novels with hiding places (The Diary of Anne Frank; The Hiding Place; The Book Thief)?
Booktalking Ideas - Discuss totalitarian regimes and their impact on literature. Find other books that deal with how a country views literature when they are trying to control the people.
Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 10+
Challenge Issues - None
Why Included - I have heard a lot about this book before this class. While working in the library I found it a good opportunity to find out what it was about.
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