The Book Theif by: Markus Zusak

1. Bibliographic Data
Zusak, Markus. The book thief . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.

2. Plot Summary
The Book Thief is an extraordinary story about a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany. The stories tells the simple pleasures of friendship, family, and learning knew things to keep the sad story entertaining at times. Liesel Meminger moves to Molching, Germany to live with foster parents when she is a young girl. Along the way she loses her brother, buries him, and steals her first book that later gives her the name "the book thief". She meets her best friend Rudy Steiner who lives next door , and learns to love her foster parents as her real mama and papa once she gets to Molching. As Nazi Germany is prevailing, Liesels papa has to live up to a promise he made years ago and harbor a young jew in his basement, Max. Throughout the story, Liesel learns to read and write and steal books from the rich familes with her best friend to read to Max in the basement. A series of events leads to Max having to leave, and eventually leads to her papa having to leave to join the war. Bombing is becomes a recurring event in the small town of Mulching that leads to Liesel losing everybody, including her foster parents and Rudy. Liesel thinks she has lost everyone and is devastated, only to find Max standing at her door one day. The story ends with Liesel living her life out in Sydney with a family, kids, and grandkids.

3. Critical Analysis
The Book Thief is a wonderful story that shares the other side to Nazi Germany. Books based during this time period usually focus on the Holocaust and are told from a Jewish child's point of view, but this story tells the story of a young German girl dealing with her anger towards Hitler. The story has a light-hearted plot of children being children that kids can relate too, but also has a good balance of the hard times during this period and what it was like. The theme accompanies the plot by being happy at times, but extremely sad at others. Marcus Zusak does a great job of incorporating his writing style into the book. The story is narrated by "death". The paragraphs are not always simple, and include pictures that Max drew, or notes and clarification spoken by "death" that are in bold through the story. The Book Thief is a good story for yougn adults that can understand and deal emotionally with the hard topics during Nazi Germany.

4.Awards and Review Excerpt(s)
*Cybil Award, 2006
*Michael L. Printz Award, 2007
*Parents' Choice Award, 2006
*Kirkus Reviews..."This big, expansive novel is a leisurely working out of fate, of seemingly chance encounters and events that ultimately touch, like dominoes as they collide. The writing is elegant, philosophical and moving. Even at its length, it's a work to read slowly and savor. Beautiful and important."

5. Connections
*Read other books that deal with Nazi Germany, try a book through a Jewish child's point of view.
*Discuss the hardships and history of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.
*Have the teens write short stories about their lives like Liesel Meminger did.

"The Book Thief." Children's Literature Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. .