The Book Thief

"A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both."

As said by the embodiment of Death in Markus Zusak’s , TheBook Thief. The book is set during World War II and to make the story more interesting and to give a great view of what is happening,  Zusak makes the narrator of the story Death himself. The story follows a young girl named Liesel Meminger who was first spotted by Death when her own little brother died of the cold. When Death comes to take her little brother’s soul away he stays to see how Liesel and her mother deal with the death of the brother. Death only finally chooses to continue to watch Liesel when he sees her steal a book at her brother’s funeral. “The Gravediggers Handbook” was the first of many books Liesel would steal after being sent away to live with another family to keep her away from the war.

But as Death continues to watch her, he watches her join the BDM, a youth group aimed at instructing young girls in Hitler’s ideas. He also watches as her and Rudy, a local boy her age who is famous around the town for his impersonation of an Olympic Athlete, play soccer, race each other, and live what they believe is the perfect life. But then Death notices a new character entering the story; Living in the basement of Liesel’s foster family’s house. But who is this character? What happens to them?

This historical fiction is definitely a book that I would recommend to other teens my age. Everything in the book caught my eyes and made me urging myself to read more. I rate this book a 9/10 because it is so perfectly put together and it faces many controversial historical events. However it does not get a full 10/10 because the book is set up in such a way that it seems like the reader is reading a play. There are different scenes, acts and random additions of dialogue from Death. But when you start reading the book all of those little bits and pieces of the book don’t change the reading for you, so don’t decide not to read this book because of it. If you haven’t got time to read this book, make time because you will not regret reading it! 

Book Review by Sam B.