The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

When you open The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, you are embarking on a Five Star reading experience! The setting is Nazi Germany during the Second World War. You history scholars out there know immediately the atrocities that could be included and Mr. Zusak does not hold back. His descriptions of the lines of Jewish people being marched through the center of town--weary, hungry, and thirsty--send chills through your bones. Would you like to know which character in the book is telling you the story? Death. Yes, death is the narrator.

Death is kind. Death is also weary. He's grown tired of the work claiming all the souls he must tend to; the souls of those being marched through the center of town to their death at the command of Hitler.

Liesel Meminger is the book thief. She so longs to read that she takes books from others cleverly sneaking into the home of a wealthy woman helping herself to the woman's personal library. It's a bit ironic that the first book Liesel takes she finds in a graveyard. It's title: The Gravedigger's Handbook. You see, death is all around.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm