Told from the odd, emotionally distant perspective of Death (circa 1942), The Book Thief is the magnetically charged story of Liesel Meminger, a German foster child, who decides to steal something back from Hitler's destructive regime. She steals stories, feathers, clouds and most important, words. She encounters a basmented Jew in hiding; an accordian-playing, soft-eyed foster father; a deceptively kind cardboard foster mother; and one yellow-haired, remarkable best friend.
Reading Questions
Q. How does having Death as narrator change the way we view the story. Would we see things in the same way if Liesel or Rudy had narrated instead?Q. How does The Book Thief compare with other Holocaust books? Have you read The Diary of Anne Frank? What about Eli Weisel's Night? How does a ficton story compare with an autobiographical one?
Q. In the end, was it really better for Liesel to have loved and lost than not loved at all?
Q. What was your favorite part of the book? Who were the characters who most endeared themselves to you?
