BIBLIOGRAPHYZusak, Markus. 2005. THE BOOK THIEF. New York, NY: Random House, Inc. ISBN 978-0-375-84220-7
AWARD(S) and STARS
- ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2007
- Michael L. Printz Honor Book, 2007
- NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, 2007
- Book Sense Book of the Year, 2007
- Kirkus Reviews Editor Choice Award, 2006
- School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, 2006
- Daniel Elliott Peace Award, 2006
This powerful story of friendship and survival, narrated by Death, tells of Liesel Meminger, who at the age of nine, went to live with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann becoming part of Hitler’s Youth, stealing, keeping secrets and “discovering the power of words.” Liesel learns to read and write under the compassionate tutelage of her stoic accordion-playing foster father using her stolen books, paint and a basement wall. She befriends the neighbor boy Rudy, the reclusive and depressed mayor’s wife, the hidden Jew, Max, and her foster mother’s spiteful enemy. As “the human race likes to crank things up a bit,” the reader will learn that “even Death has a heart.”
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Beautifully written and interspersed with figurative language, Markus Zusak creates a visual picture of all that is ugly and heart-warming about World War II in Germany. Zusak’s uses vivid and poetic language to describe events like the foreboding feeling about the war as it “waltzed through the window with the draft” or when Rudy raced ahead “[l]ike an elastic rope, he lengthened his lead…” He sprinkles the horror with bits of humor, for example when Rudy continually asks Liesel for a kiss or when Liesel brings a “weather report” to Max by building a snowman in the basement. Throughout the novel, Zusak also uses snippets of German terms and creatively includes their translation. Without sugarcoating or sensationalizing the devastation, readers will empathize with the characters as they courageously live while “the world is an ugly stew.”
Markus Zusak gives thanks to Trudy White in his acknowledgements for her artistic ability when rendering the few illustrations for Max’s books. Her simple black and white illustrations expertly depict someone who would have been painting a story on torn out book pages that had been painted white.
In the back of the paperback version is included a brief summary of the book, questions for discussion, related titles, internet resources and a short interview/ conversation with Marcus Zusak. These resources would assist anyone wanting to conduct a book group, research more about the time, and of course, learn more about Zusak.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (2005) – “Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers… 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 Liesel’s story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves.”
- HORN BOOK (2006) - "Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited."
- BOOKS FOR KEEPS (2007) – “ [I]t is about survival; the survival of people in the first instance, but it is also a reflection on the survival of books despite efforts to eradicate them, and of words too in the face of a political system which makes everyone afraid of saying too much.”
- Zusak offers four suggestions if related titles: In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer, Milkweed, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Tunes for Bears to Dance To. Other suggested readings would include:
- THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK by Anne Frank, ISBN 978-0582017368
- NUMBER THE STARS by Lois Lowery, ISBN 978-0547577098
- EMIL AND KARL by Yankev Glatshteyn, ISBN 978-0312373870
- SURVIVORS: TRUE STORIES OF CHILDREN IN THE HOLOCAUST by Allan Zullo, ISBN 978-0439669962
- Rich with poetic and figurative language, dialogue and vivid descriptions, The Book Thief would be a good book for a reader’s theater. Some suggested scripts could be when Liesel and Rudy are describing their thieving talents to the new gang leader Viktor Chemmel or when the Nazi Party is going house to house looking for deep basements for shelters Liesel purposely injures herself by running into another soccer player so she can go inside to warn her Mama and Papa knowing that Max, the Jew, is hidden in her basement.
- Zusak offers two websites for more information about this difficult time:
- Below are a few more relevant websites for information or research:
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