Dave Schaafsma's Reviews > The Book Thief

For this time of book censorship and actual book-burning and defunding libraries in the US of A:

This is a 550 page book, but it was (perhaps) was written for a middle grades audience, and it reads fast. I would call it an "all ages book" which means that tweens and up can read and appreciate it. And I really think it is a classic, something everyone should consider reading. The book focuses on Liesel, a middle grades German girl who also as it turns out is a book thief. I'll explain.

The (fictional) story is set in Munich during WWII; Liesel's (non-Jewish and non-Nazi) family is hiding Max, a Jew and an artist, in their basement during the war. (No, it's not only Anne Frank and those from other countries who sheltered Jews and other potential victims of the Third Reich during that war as people learned to, their horror, that the Nazis were actually killing literally millions deemed less than fully human in ovens; some non-Jewish Germans were also part of these efforts to save/protect their fellow Germans).

The book is also about Liesel's friendship with Rudy and her relationships with her foster parents Rosa and Hans. I had a little struggle with the kind of quirky style early on, and was distracted just briefly by the fact that this was yet another book marketed to librarians and teachers. . . oh, it's about the power of books, duh, and reading, art, writing, expression, among many others, though finally I got over this, of course, and learned to celebrate all this as we should. The Nazis burned books, which is part of how this book thieving got started, in a way.

One of the most remarkable things about the book is that the story is narrated by Death, which at first I thought was a little corny/children's lit, then I really, really liked it, because it worked against sentimentality, which of course you expect with a Holocaust book. There was a lot of work Death was doing during WWII, including the Holocaust, of course. I like the way Death, knowing what he does and not being a particularly sentimental storyteller, reveals important plot information before it happens (because why should he care what we think about spoilers!?), and then we experience all he has told us will unfold. That's a narrative risk Zusak takes and it pays off wonderfully, I thought.

Zusak has said he hoped people would find at least one writerly "gem" on each page, that he loved to write metaphors and I thought as writing it was well done. Of course you notice the language when it is striking and insightful, but Zusak makes sure the lyricism doesn't take away the focus on the actual horrors and suffering that are central to the tale. As I said, it took a bit for me to adjust to his style, but ultimately I found it very entertaining, and moving, and lovely, within the important story it tells.

Zusak wanted to tell about the Holocaust from a different angle, so he researched the resistance to Hitler within Nazi Germany. And as it turns out there were actually Germans who hated the fear- and hate-mongering Hitler (imagine this, a populist leader who hates people of color--anyone not classic blue-eyed, blond-haired German), gays, people with disabilities--but didn't know how to organize to respond to the shitstorm that was happening there. It shows a little bit of German resistance. And it's not sympathetic in the least about the something like 90% support--tens of millions of votes, for sure--for Hitler.

Liesel becomes who she is because she is encouraged to "steal" books (like a library itself in some ways?!) from a woman's library and (passionately) read them. She rescues books from the fire and cherishes them, though she could be executed for these acts. And in the process she comes to understand through her reading the richness of human diversity and art such is represented in the Jewish artist they shelter in their basement.

I read this first in November, 2013, and again in March, 2014 for my YA class, and again in July, 2015 for my summer YA class. It's great stuff.