The Book Thief Fact Sheet

3. What are the best parts of this book? Why? What are the worst parts of this book? Why? Give details with page numbers from the book to explain.

There are many reasons why Liesel’s life shows beauty in the wake of brutality, but the most significant reason is that she has beautiful connections with people, so no matter how brutal things get,

Liesel, the book thief herself, steals books in times of pain. All six books Liesel steals are metaphors for the feelings of loss and pain during the time of which the book was stolen. She uses the books to grow knowledge of the situations occurring around her, one stolen book in particular is “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” This book is the first of all books Liesel steals, and it is the book that caused her to grow to love words, coincidently, she finds this book in the snow on the day of her brother’s death, which is when she was filled with grief and abandonment. This book is a symbol for Liesel’s grief and as she tries to learn how to read the book, her twisted comfort in the story shows how the words had a powerful effect on her grieving process shown by the quotation, “…Not to mention the morbidity of the subject. As for the girl, there was a sudden desire to read it that she didn't even attempt to understand” (Zusak, 66)

Rudy Steiner is Liesel Meminger’s best friend. He has been by Liesel’s side at her best and even at her worst. He was the one that walked home with Liesel after she beat up Ludwig, got a book that was thrown into a river for her, stopped her from chasing Max and wanted a kiss. Rudy always wanted to help Liesel and would do anything to do so. Liesel was not judged by him for the actions she made. Rudy and Liesel had fun together as children. Children in this time period had to grow up very fast because of what was going on. Rudy went with Liesel

The first of them happens on the Fuhrer (Adolf Hitler)’s birthday. Because of her Hitler Youth group, Liesel is forced to attend the celebration in the town center. There, the people make a large pile of books and belongings and papers, all to be burned and destroyed for entertainment. Here, Liesel is traumatized by the shouts of Communism and destruction. She sneaks away and sits on the steps to wait for Papa. This is finally where Liesel analyzes her mother’s complete disappearance. She realizes that her being gone was of Hitler’s doing, and curses Hitler’s name. The other traumatic event happens at the very end of the novel. Liesel is in her basement writing The Book Thief, which is a summary of her life since she arrived at 33 Himmel Street in her own words. During this time, a bomb is dropped on Molching. This bomb ends up killing Hans and Rosa Hubermann and Rudy Steiner. This moment is when Liesel loses almost everybody who matters to her. Max Vandenburg already had left, her foster parents and best friend are dead, and her mother and brother have long been gone. Readers can see how much this affected Liesel when she doesn’t leave her bed in the Mayor’s house for days. She lets all of this emotion she’s built up pour out when she finds Max Vandenburg in a store and just hugs

The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by Markus Zusak. Based on its title, some readers might think the story is just about a thief who steals books, but really it’s more emotional than stealing books, the story is about a young girl named Liesel Meminger who steals books when people in Germany were captivated by Adolf Hitler from book burning and other places. The interesting point is that the books are not something really important, in fact, they’re just normal reading books, and the reason she steals the books is because of her desire for reading. Even Though Liesel is the protagonist of this novel, but in this essay, the main focus point is not her, but another guy who is also loved by the readers.

The Book Thief’s plot is character driven in the beginning. Characters choose to make their own decisions and consequently feel the effects of later on. For example, Liesel and Rudy intentionally make the decision to steal books from Ilsa Hermann’s library. The Hubermann and the Steiner families both make the subconscious decision to dislike the Nazis. Finally, Hans Hubermann makes the potentionally incriminating decision to harbor a Jew, Max, in his basement. These characters choose to go against their morals, yet their decisions work in their favor. Nearing the end of the book, the plot structure switches to plot driven; external forces disturbing the characters more than their own decisions and actions do. This novel is centered around the Holocaust and the war was taking place, and without this, many of the major events would not have happened, resulting in a different outcome for the characters. The bombs set off due to the war also influenced the characters by a great deal, causing their panic and fear to control their

11 million people died during the Holocaust. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger loses many of her loved ones. At the beginning of the book, Liesel’s brother dies of illness on a train, and her mother is taken away by the Nazis for being a communist. After losing everyone she ever cared about, the story drags Liesel into a humble household where she discovers her passion for books, and her love for her family and friends. However, her loved ones are once again torn away from her as Himmel Street, the street she lives on, gets bombed. She loses her foster parents, her best friend, and everyone else she came to know. As a result of these adverse events, Liesel’s innocence was stolen from her. In The Book Thief, loss plays an essential role in developing characters, especially Liesel. After losing Werner, her brother, Liesel is plagued by

The book influences Liesel too hope that by going against the Führer she will see her mother again, whom she was told will never see again. Max developed a strong connection with the symbolic book Mein Kampf, not only did it save his life, it also gave him a platform to creatively display his feelings of hope. “They were the erased pages of Mein Kampf, gagging, suffocating under the paint as they turned.” (237) Max covered the pages of Hitler’s book and wrote his own story, a story of a jew and a pro-intellectualism going against the leaders ways. Max’s self written story over top of Mein Kampf is symbolic of hope as he writes about his sad experiences of being locked up and how he wants to

The second portion of the book introduced us to the part of Liesel’s life in which Max Vandenburg became part of the Hubermann family. After Max arrived at the end of the first section, Viktor Chemmel and Franz Deutscher were introduced as well. At first, Max had an awkward relationship with the Hubermanns, but he and Liesel eventually became united by their shared love of words. Nevertheless, the issue of concealing Max from the Nazis became a problem for Liesel’s family, especially when Max fell ill, which is another major trouble that the Hubermanns were forced to endure. Another conflict occurred when Ilsa Hermann could not afford to pay Rosa to work anymore; Liesel

In the very beginning, the protagonist, Liesel, is faced with her first tragic encounter. On a train traveling toward Munich to live with foster parents, Liesel endures the death of her six year old brother. “There was an intense spurt of coughing. Almost an inspired spurt. And soon after-nothing” (Zusak 20). Her brother’s death happens so quickly that Liesel and her mother are left in disbelief and despair. This incentive moment began the tragic journey for Liesel or as Death named her, the Book Thief. After leaving her mom and being brought to her foster home, Liesel clings to the hope that this is just temporary. Because her foster father, Hans, taught her how to read and write, she desperately attempts to reach out through letters to her mom with no response. Even though Liesel is in this tragic journey, she has comfort and companionship from her foster parent, Hans, Rudy, a neighbor boy, and finally Max, the hidden Jew. Each of these relationships causes a chain reaction towards tragedy. As for Hans, “Liesel observed the strangeness of her foster father's eyes. They were made of kindness, and silver. Like soft silver, melting” (Zusak 34). Because of his kindness, Liesel also observes the tragedy. Having seen Hans being whipped multiple times in front of many people for helping a Jew and then drafted into war for also helping a Jew, Liesel sees the consequences for standing up for your own beliefs. Hans also developed in Liesel the love of reading which causes her to stand in horror and watch the burning of the book ceremony. Rudy, on the other hand, has a different relationship with Liesel. A love hate relationship that dealt with stealing and a childhood of mischievousness, these two characters bring joy in each others’ lives. Not knowing what they would do without each other, Liesel and Rudy depend on each other only to have that

Lastly, meeting Liesel has an insightful effect on Max. After befriending each other, the two become very intimate. Through Liesel, Max finds “himself most interested in life again” when he is spending time with Liesel. This persuades Max into creating an indicator of their friendship in the form of

In Nazi Germany, the axis fought extremely hard to oppress Jews and dehumanize them. These ideals were pushed upon the German citizens relentlessly during Hitler's reign through laws. In the book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the author presents the readers with characters who are under Nazi rule. These characters are all affected by the government in different ways, but the overarching theme of the book is the dehumanization of good people. Hans, Rudy, and Liesel all give humanity back to someone who has been dehumanized, even in the face of adversity.

If I had to chose a book to commit to memory, similar to the “Book People,” in Fahrenheit 451, I would choose to memorize The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The Book Thief is a novel that mainly focuses on the life of a Liesel Meminger, a girl fostered by a German family during Nazi Germany. Her foster family soon hides a Jew named Max Vandenburg, that leads to conflict in the story due to the occurring Holocaust. However, the novel is told from a unique and proprietary perspective--the perspective of Death. Throughout the novel, Death foreshadows the coming death of the characters in the book. I believe that The Book Thief is a prime candidate for memorization because of its important historical events, despite its fictitious characters. Regardless

Although Rudy is a very bright individual, he is as capable of making foolish mistakes as any other person, displaying a dual nature. Take for example his fate tempting adventure in Mamer’s Grocery Store, during the chapter Three Acts of Stupidity by Rudy Steiner, where he masterfully weaves through a line of shoppers attempting to buy potatoes, almost escaping notice. As he reaches the front, he seizes the largest potato of all—which is unfortunately being eyed by many other hungry Germans. Almost immediately, Rudy is surrounded by the other customers and restrained by the grocer, Thomas Mamer, who threatens to call the police. The situation is looking bleak for Rudy until he is struck by a stroke of genius. Spying in the crowd Herr Link, one of his schoolteachers, Rudy urges him to convince the shopkeeper how poor he is. Herr Link recognizes Rudy’s dire situation and aids him in escaping the grocery store without any serious repercussions (293-299). Rudy’s narrow escape exemplifies a major part of his dual nature. His belief that he can steal the most magnificent potato from a grocer and a crowd of hungry Germans is insane. However, his quick thinking shows just how clever he can be.