Book Review: The Book Thief

 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Zusak, M. (2005). The book thief. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0375842209

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

Narrated by death, this book tells the story or a young foster girl, Liesel Meminger is surrounded by death. As we learn throughout the story, everyone she loves and builds relationships with end up dying. This novel also shares Liesel’s character development as a 10-year-old who steals books but is unable to read at first. As time goes on, and with the help of her foster dad, she learns to read and comprehend her surroundings, which happen to be during World War II.  As the story continues, readers see how Liesel finds comfort in these books in the words she reads.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This book was such an interesting read. There were so many themes present throughout the story that engaged readers and had them flipping through each page. I though Zusak was a total genius for having death narrating this novel. What I found the most interesting about this story was how death was developed as a character who clearly cared about Liesel. This is so unlike the stereotype that death is usually given. This book is full of figurative language and symbolism! I found this story to be very sad because Liesel experienced so much loss at such a young age. It was also sad to see how she had to suppress her feelings about death, which was evident because of her nightmares.  Throughout this historical fiction, many differences in the characters, which made this story so good. For example, we saw how a family was divided because of their opposing views on Hilter. We also saw how individuals had to live two separate lives, one in public and one in private because they were afraid of what could happen to them or their family. To say this book is a must read, is an understatement. This novel is fantastic!

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Starred review in New York Times: “Brilliant and hugely ambitious…”

Starred review in Kirkus: "Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important."

Starred review in Publishers Weekly: "This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length

and subject..."

Starred review in School Library Journal: "An extraordinary narrative."

5. CONNECTIONS

*Before you students begin reading the novel, have them create a KWL chart detailing what they know about the era (Holocaust/WWII), and have them think about what they hope to learn from reading the book. Once students finish reading the novel, have them go back and list what they learned from the novel.

* Group students in small groups of 3-4 students and have them work on a research project to learn more about the time period described in this novel. Students should share their research with the class when done.

* Have students think about who is narrating this novel. Have them write a narrative explaining why they think the story was written from death’s point of view.  Have students think about Death’s early descriptions of the book thief, what inferences can you draw about this character? Remind students to cite specific examples from the story to support their response.  

*Those who enjoyed “The Book Thief”, would also enjoy these titles.

Morpurgo, M. (2013). An elephant in the garden: Inspired by a true story. Square Fish.

ISBN: 1250034140

Park, L. S. (2010). A long walk to water: A novel: Based on a true story. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

ISBN: 0547577311

This book review was written for SHSU's MLA course.