The Book Thief- Entry #3

The book I am reading, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, is about a 10-year-old German girl, Liesel, who lived during the Holocaust. In the few pages of the book, you learn that the book is narrated by death itself. He talks about how he’s encountered this girl several times, and seems to be interested in her and her life. Next, death narrates the current life of Liesel. We learn that her mother gave her and her brother away to a foster family. And, on the way to their new family, her brother dies. When she visited his grave for the last time, she stole a book from one of the gravediggers and keeps it with her to remember him. His death causes much pain for Liesel, and she has nightmares every night about it and wakes up crying. Those nights, her foster Dad, Hans, comes in and comforts her until she can fall back asleep. Later on in the book, they spend that time teaching Liesel to read. Hans is much nicer than her foster Mom, Rosa, who bosses Liesel around and complains to her all day. Deep inside, she loves her very much. For Christmas, they bought her two books, which was probably the best present she could’ve gotten. Liesel loved reading, and books, but at the beginning of the book she couldn’t read at all. After many sessions with her dad, her reading skill started to improve. Soon she might be able to read in front of her class and prove them wrong. She also spends time with her close friend, Ruby, who is also her neighbor. He always sticks up for her, and they are starting to become best friends. Where I am in the book, she is wondering where her mom is, why she gave her up, and why she isn’t answering her letters.

This book is set in 1940, during the Holocaust. Liesel lives in Germany, and supports Hitler, though doesn’t really have big opinions on him. She hears a lot about Jews, and what the Germans think of them, but doesn’t know why. Her foster parents, Hans and Rosa, don’t discuss the issue very much so she doesn’t know too much about what’s going on.

The main characters in this story are Liesel, Hans, and Rosa. Liesel is 10 years old and was adopted into her foster family. As a person, she is very brave and loving and seems very innocent. One of the things she likes to do is to read, even though she is only learning and isn’t very good. Because of this, she steals a couple books, just so she can read them. Her foster parents are good people overall. The mom, Rosa, is strict and gives a lot of orders. She isn’t a totally bad person though; at times she can be nice and loving. But, the dad is almost the complete opposite and is so kind and loving to Liesel; they have a very good bond.

There are a few problems present in this story. One of the issues is that Liesel’s real family isn’t doing so well. As a child, her father left her, her mother, and her brother. Now, her brother’s dead and her mom gave her away to a foster family. There is also the fact that Liesel doesn’t know what happened to her mom, or why she even gave her up in the first place. Another problem is that Liesel is having trouble learning in school and fitting in with the other students. At the beginning of the book, she was so uneducated that they sent her to go learn with the little kids. She started to slowly learn how to read and write from her father, and has gotten much better. There is still the present issue that she’s not as good as her peers, and they make fun of her for that. The last issue is that they are living in an awful time, even though they’re alive and okay. They still have to feel the pressure of Hitler and the Nazis and see others suffer.