City/Publisher : Penguin Random House LLC
Genre : Historical Fiction
Audience and Reading Level : 12 and up
Summary : There is war. There is loss. There is silence. In Nazi Germany, fear lingers in the air like smoke. Liesel Meminger’s beginning starts with a stolen book, taken from her brother’s grave. With the help of a gentle foster father and sharp-tongued foster mother, Liesel slowly learns to read, stealing books when she can. When the bombs begin to fall and her world grows even darker, Liesel learns the true power of words. The power to comfort, resist, and remember. Death is always watching, narrating Liesel’s story with curiosity and sorrow. In a time of hatred, Liesel must decide what kind of person she will be.
1. Empathy : This book explores understanding and compassion during a dark period of our history. As Liesel’s empathy grows for those around her, students can learn how powerful it is to connect with others’ main and humanity. Liesel befriends the Jewish man hiding in her basement and ends up risking her own safety to bring others joy through stolen books and stories. Even Death ends up showing empathy as he speaks about the pain and beauty of human life. Empathy helps people understand that the world isn’t a simple good and evil. This novel helps students understand that having empathy doesn’t make you weak, it makes you courageous.
2. Grief : Grief is woven through the this book and it shapes the characters and the choices they make. Liesel’s story starts in a moment of grief, the death of her brother and the disappearance of her mother when she is left with foster parents. As the story continues, grief becomes a part of Liesel’s daily life and it ends up transforming her. She learns to cope with her grief through reading, writing and storytelling. Hans, her foster father, shows us his grief through the way he mourns the war while Max, the Jewish man hiding in the basement, shows his grief of being hunted and separated from his family. Even Death shows his grief at the repeated loss of human life. The novel shows students that everyone experiences difficult emotions, but that grief is not meant to be hidden or feared. Instead, it is meant to be understood, expressed, and grown through. Gaining a better understanding of grief helps to gain compassion for others and yourself.
3. Survival : Survival shapes every single character’s journey in this book. Their survival is about staying alive but also hanging on to their identity, kindness, and humanity when the world is dangerous, full of fear, and cruel. Liesel must survive the physical side of war but also the emotional toll of her losses, hunger, and fear. Liesel and her friend Rudy turn to stealing, in order to not starve but they can’t share the food with their families for fear of being caught and punished. Max has to survive in complete isolation while clinging to the stories he has created and the friendship he ends up forming with Liesel. Rosa and Hans have to keep their family strong even when food is scarce and threats surround them. When Liesel comes to the realization that Hitler is the reason her mother is gone Hans has to teach her a quick lesson in survival. Liesel shouts angrily about her hatred of Hitler while in public. Hans immediately slaps her and informs her that she cannot say those things outside the safety of their home and forces her to perform the Hiel Hitler. Hans knows that Liesel and possibly his whole family will die if others heard what Liesel said. Liesel must conform in public just as Hans has been.
I have known this book existed since shortly after it was published but I had never actually read it. Being able to finally read this book made me realize I probably should have read it earlier. It is written differently than most books I read. It was interesting to have death as the narrator and how he would give hints as to things that will happen in the future. It made me want to keep reading in order to find out what Death meant. I think this book does an excellent job in showing us how different people of different standings survive and the things different people are willing to do or let be done in order to survive.
The character I found most interesting was Mr. Steiner. Almost right off the bat he gained my attention due to his reaction to how the Nazi’s were dealing with the Jews. We learn from Mr. Steiner that the Nazi’s told him, and likely others, that the Jews were going to come in and take all his customers away. For a poor man like Mr. Steiner, no customers means that his already struggling family would starve and die. So while Mr. Steiner held no ill will towards the Jews, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that they weren’t there to take his customers away. His stance on the situation is realistic and likely reflective of the average persons stance during that time while under Nazi rule.
One of my favorite quotes in the whole book happens right at the beginning, before we even truly meet Liesel. “I am not violent. I am not malicious. I am a result.” This quote is from death, he is trying to reassure us. So many people fear death or think of it as a punishment when in reality it is just the one thing everything in the world has in common. Plants, animals, and humans all die at some point and we all fight for our survival. Death itself is not violent or malicious, the events that lead up to it might be, but death itself is not. This death is a precursor to the entire book and forces you to think about life and loss in a different way. Death is not the stories villain, he is simply an observer that has to silently witness the brutality and horrors of humanity. While he doesn’t exactly enjoy his job, Death does it with an interesting sense of respect and grief. Death shows us that suffering is not caused by death but by war, hatred, poverty, and injustice. At the end, death is what arrives to give you a reprieve from the suffering.
baratheonpilled
izzy806
dailybridgerton
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
turnnoffyourmind
jbbartram-illu