Imagine being an eleven-year-old girl living in Germany during World War II. Think about all the things you would have to go through. You might be willing to risk a great deal living in a place like that, such as hiding a Jew or standing up for others. The main characters in The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, take these risks. In doing so, the reader discovers that there are almost always positive and negative outcomes when risks are taken.

Zusak takes us back to Molching during the winter of 1939. Zusak does great job of creating the characters in this book. Liesel, the main character in the book, lived in Molching, Germany with her mama, papa, and her best friend Rudy. These characters in the book are all interconnected in some way. Hans, her papa, is especially influential because Liesel has never had a father figure and Hans fills the space. Liesel is involved in many of the relationships and most of the relationships risk is involved. Rudy and Liesel’s friendship includes many examples of risk. At one point, Rudy risks jumping in a freezing cold river to retrieve Liesel’s book. Liesel also risks many things for Rudy.

Rudy also becomes one of our favorite characters. Around that time because there was a world famous African-American track runner, Jesse Owens, who was winning many medals. Rudy idolized Jesse Owens. At one point in the book Rudy even covered himself from head to toe in charcoal to look more like Owens. After that, he ran around the track imagining being the fast African American. He risked getting in trouble with his dad, but it was worth it to him because he got to feel what it was like to be Jesse Owens. After Rudy portrayed Jesse Owens, his dad was bothered by Rudy doing this, and gave him a talk about not acting like anybody else. Subsequently, Rudy did not cover himself in charcoal in the book again.

The narrator in the book, which was an amazing creation, is Death. Death shows a different perspective on life. Death puts his job of taking away people’s lives in a very interesting point of view. At times he has to take away people’s lives who he has watched throughout their life, and it becomes hard to acquire their lives because he has grown attached to them. It was especially hard for him at that time because the war is happening, and an immense number of people were dying. Even though at times it is a bit confusing having Death as the narrator it is very alluring most of the time. Death being the narrator is one of the many reasons why we would recommend this book.

We like this book because the narrator, Death, gives us a different insight on what it is like to be in Molching, Germany during World War II. Having Death as the narrator really adds to this book.  As Death took us on this journey we realised that risk has many outcomes, some positive and some negative. We also like this book because it showed all of the difficulties of being a kid living in Germany during World War ll. It shows how Rudy and Liesel coped with these conditions. Whether it was stealing a book or running around your neighborhood track painted black. It also was hard for adults because they weren’t making a ton of money at this time and they had to pay for their families. We would recommend this book to parents and children because it shows an insight for both ages.