In a town full of Nazi supporters, a girl learns to love, and then loses everything. We read The Book Thief in our 8th grade English class and completely adored it! The Book Thief transports readers back to WWII and shows the life of Liesel Meminger, a 9-year-old girl in foster care.In Marcus Zusak’s novel narrated by Death himself, he sends readers on an emotional roller-coaster and takes you to Himmel Street, a street in a small German town, and demonstrates the miraculous power that words hold.

To begin, Liesel is a girl who lives in a poor town in Germany called Munich, who’s a young and introverted girl with sunshine colored hair, and dashing brown eyes. She is a clever girl with a passion for books and a mind full of colors and thoughts. In her days living on Himmel Street she runs into a boy named Rudy. Rudy is a scrawny boy with hair the color of butternut squash and lips that crave Liesel’s love. Hans and Rosa Hubermann are Liesel’s foster parents. Hans has silver eyes and is amazing at the accordion. Rosa is short, chubby woman with a truck driver’s mouth. Max, well I’ll leave it to you to meet Max.

Secondly, let’s discuss Liesel’s love for books. She has lost almost everything, besides the book called The Grave Digger's Handbook when she meets the Hubermanns.  Due to the amount of loss she’s experienced, she tries to find an escape to cope with. She discovers books however, there’s a problem, she can’t read. She confides with her foster father Hans to help her read. This becomes an amazing bonding experience for them. This is also an example of how powerful words are; they can bring two unlikely souls together.

Later on a man named Max comes around. He has to come out of hiding for a few days to travel to the Hubermann’s home. In order to do so, he can’t appear to be a Jew. One of the main things that keeps Max’s true identity hidden is a copy of Mein Kampf. Mein Kampf, which means my struggle, is a book written by Hitler which describes his life and how terrible Jews are. Since he has this with him no one suspects him to be a Jew. This is also an example of how words hold a great power. A book is the only thing that kept Max safe and alive. Without Mein Kampf, he could have been sent to a concentration camp. Instead, he made it safely at the Hubberman’s.

Rosa Hubermann does the laundry for the richer and more privileged people in town. Liesel begins to deliver the laundry for Rosa, and delivers laundry to the mayor’s wife, Ilsa Hermann. Ilsa Hermann is  very quiet, but has a place in her heart for Liesel. She has a huge library in her home. As you now know, Liesel loves books. She invites Liesel into her library one day, after that day Liesel decides to break into the library multiple times, and steal books. Though this might seem like it would make Ilsa upset or even angry, it actually brings them closer together.

To see what comes of Liesel, Rudy, and the others find a copy of The Book Thief. Once you pick it up you won’t be able to put it down. Zusak has such a way with words he can paint a picture in your mind with just letters on a paper. We loved The Book Thief and would highly recommend it to anyone intrigued by historical fiction or just someone looking for a good book.