Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel — a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Awards
USBBY Honor Book
Take a closer look at The Book Thief as examined in WOW Review.
Related: Europe, Germany, Historical Fiction, Young Adult (ages 14-18)
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Those living through the European Holocaust experienced situations that show—very concretely—how change is inevitable. The Book Thief addresses the changes that occurred with Liesel as she learned to read and by learning to read, changed the lives of those around her. This book is fantastic. Narrated by Death, the language—and the use of color—is stunning. The Book Thief takes readers on a journey that engages them, enlightens them, and ultimately changes them. At times, the book blends cold narration by Death, which is just doing the work created for it, with heart-wrenching episodes that highlight the humanity remaining in a world that made no sense. Readers watch, like Death, as Liesel, a young German girl who was neither Jewish or a Nazi sympathizer, attempts to live while everything around her seems to be dying. While I highly recommend this book for any adolescent, I would also warn them that their own reality will shift immediately. This story is so alive, readers would have to be prepared for feeling that The Book Thief is more real than their own daily lives. It is a world that wraps itself around you, and while it makes you angry and sad, then breaks your heart, you don’t want to leave.
This novel, just like Tamar, will stay with you long after the last page, this is a text that I would love to use with adolescents. I would want them to know the story, appreciate the narration, love the language, and despise what human beings do to one another. The combination of a young girl, her love of books, and the events of history that change her life, The Book Thief should be on every young historian’s reading list.