The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
560 pages
Publisher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers (2006)
ISBN:  0375831002
Reading Level/Lexile:  7th-12th grade/730L
Genre:  Historical Fiction


Annotation/Teaser:  Narrated by Death, this book is set in 1939 World War II Germany.  It tells the story of Liesel, ten years old and being taken to a foster home in another town.  She steals a book called The Gravedigger's Handbook but she doesn't know how to read.  One night, her foster father finds the book under her mattress and begins to teach her to read.  Soon after, her foster parents help a Jewish man by hiding him in their house.  Will the whole family get caught harboring a Jew?  What will happen to Liesel if everyone she knows and loves are taken away?

Plot Summary:  Ten year old Liesel, along with her younger brother and mother, board a train headed for Molching, Germany, where she will live with foster parents, Hans and Rosa. While on the train, Liesel's brother dies.  Before she arrives in Molching, Liesel attends the funeral of her brother and steals a copy of The Gravedigger's Handbook that had fallen out of the pocket of a grave digger's coat.  Even though she cherishes this book, she doesn't know how to read.  She starts school when she gets to Molching but struggles because of her lack of reading skills.  One night , Hans finds the book under the mattress and he inspired to teach Liesel to read and write.  With her newfound skills she learns the value of books and written word.  Then she begins to steal books from other places.  And this starts the transformation of lives through Liesel's love of books.

About The Author:  Markus Zusak 
Born in Sydney, Australia, Markus Zusak began his career writing young adult fiction. The Underdog, Zusak's first novel, was published in 1999 and followed by two sequels, Fighting Ruben Wolfe (2001) and When Dogs Cry (2002). Zusak's 2002 novel The Messenger was well received internationally, winning several awards including a Michael L. Printz Honor selection, a citation given for literary excellence in young adult literature.

In 2006, Zusak's fifth novel The Book Thief was published in his native Australia as the author's first work of "adult" fiction, yet marketed by its American publisher Knopf as another work of young adult fiction. Successful upon publication, over one million copies of The Book Thief have been sold internationally, and the novel received a Printz Honor.

Zusak was born to an Austrian father and a German mother, both of whom experienced World War II firsthand in their native countries. Zusak has stated that The Book Thief was unlike anything he had written before and largely inspired by stories his parents told him as a child about wartime Munich and Vienna. Zusak has specifically singled out two stories his mother told him, one of the bombing of Munich, and one of Jews being marched through Zusak's mother's town on their way to the Dachau concentration camp.
Like The Book Thief's character of Hans Hubermann, Zusak's father was a house painter, and at an early age Zusak wanted to be a house painter as well. Zusak began writing as a teenager, and cited The Old Man and the Sea and What's Eating Gilbert Grape as inspirations. Zusak's sixth novel, a young adult fiction titled Bridge of Clay, is to be published in November 2009.

Markus Zusak (n.d.)  Retrieved from www.gradesaver.com

Critical Evaluation:  Death is the narrator in this book and Death's personification is what makes this book so strong.  Death is the perfect choice as narrator because death is able to give Liesel's point of view but also give the reader information that a child the age of Liesel wouldn't understand.  Death is able to provide more than just what Liesel sees in her small, isolated world.  He uses Death to give a unique perspective on the dying in World War II Germany.  By choosing Death to give a commentary of the war outside of Liesel's world, Zusak gives the reader insight from an expert.  Who better to give this account of dying?   Zusak gives Death some very real human characteristics. He is long suffering and overworked.  His job is never ending because of the war and all the deaths at the hands of Hitler.  But he is ,also, almost like a child in his curiosity.  He is curious of Liesel because of her courage and her words.  Stories like Liesel's keep death going.  He says, "to prove to myself, that you, and your human existence, are worth it."  Zusak's choice of narrator makes this story great.  Death is the perfect choice to share this time in history.  Markus Zusak says this about his choice of Death as the narrator, "Well, I thought I'm writing a book about war, and there's that old adage that war and death are best friends, but once you start with that idea, then I thought, well, what if it's not quite like that? Then I thought what if death is more like thinking, well, war is like the boss at your shoulder, constantly wanting more, wanting more, wanting more, and then that gave me the idea that Death is weary, he's fatigued, and he's haunted by what he sees humans do to each other because he's on hand for all of our great miseries." (Zusak, 2006)
 

Zusak, M. (2006, April 2). Interview by Ydstie John []. Call me death: odd narrator of a girl's story., Retrieved from www.npr.org

Curriculum Ties:  History, Language Arts, English

Book Talk Ideas:  Do a booktalk from Death's point of view about meeting Liesel, the book thief. Share her courage and what makes him curious about her. 

Controversial Issues:  Violence, death 

Defense:  

*I will keep the library's selection policy on hand and memorized with a good understanding  of the standards and policies to show that the selection meets the standards. 

*I will keep good and bad reviews (both electronic and print) and make sure they are from reliable and respected sources such as School of Library Journal, Booklist, and YALSA. I will have copies of these reviews to give away. 

*I will confirm the library's position to provide intellectual freedom as stated in the Library Bill of Rights and keep a copy of this.

*I will keep a written rationale to justify the reasons this material is included in the collection, such as educational significance and curriculum ties.

*I will be respectful and calm and practice "active listening".

*I will make sure I read the material and are very familiar with it.

   

* I will keep a reconsideration form on file in the event that my other strategies don't work. 

Why I Chose This Book?  I chose this book because of his link to World War II history.  This is a fantastic work of historical fiction that could be included in school curriculum and read just for fun.