The Book Thief

As a history teacher, I found the way that Nazi Germany was described through the eyes of a child fascinating. Liesel's slow realisation that Hitler is the reason why she has lost her mother was very well told. I really liked the way that Liesel became an opponent to the Nazi regime through reading books. I think that Liesel's relationship with Max shows that kindness is the best way to challenge a regime that tries to dehumanise certain groups.

great replica of the world wars that have happened in germany

I loved this book as it had lots of new vocabulary for me to learn.

Read as part of The Gloucester Book Club

This book is wow!

Beautifully and thoughtfully written. It shows the best and worst of humanity without being overly traumatising. I would let my middle-grade readers read this. Very impressive.

Awesome book set in Germany during the II world war

I love books like this and I couldn't stop reading this one

Most of the people at this meeting had finished the book but some were struggling with it. Interestingly two people at the meeting had also watched the film so were able to add this viewpoint to the discussion.

We discussed the fact that Death narrates the book, we felt that this gave it an interesting angle rather than seeing things through say Rudy or Leisels viewpoint. It was interesting that Death gave large hints about when people might be dying, often quite far in advance of the event. Some people liked this as it meant they could focus on the rest of the book rather than just the deaths. Other people didn't enjoy this as they liked the element of not knowing and having surprises through the book. Interestingly some people took a while to realise that Death was narrating rather than any of the other characters.

There is a lot of imagery in the book, especially from Death regards the colours he sees when collecting souls. Some of the book club really enjoyed this and felt it really added to the book. Others felt that while some of the imagery was interesting it did have a tendency to become a little too much at some points, causing confusion as to what Death meant.

We had a quick discussion as to how we saw Death managing to collect all the hundreds and thousands of souls during this particularly death ridden time. Some saw him as growing slowly larger and carrying more and more souls, others felt that he must move incredibly fast collecting one or two at a time. Interestingly we never find out where the souls eventually end up, just that Death pulls them from the dead bodies and collects them.

Some of the characters in this book really spoke to some of the book group, especially Mama and Papa. We felt that Mama, despite her gruff exterior, really loved both Papa and Leisel with all her heart, she just happened to have built a wall around her heart to protect it a little. We liked that this book showed the quieter ways that the German people tried to help the Jewish people rather than the big brash heroic ways that other books try to show. This felt more realistic to us. We also talked about how the people in the book felt different kinds of guilt, mostly to do with surviving when others had died, often in order to save them. They all reacted differently to their feelings of guilt, either trying to do good things because that must be the reason they survived, or wanting to do bad things to the people who caused their guilt, or simply trying to live a normal life.

One thing that we felt was missing was more information about the books mentioned in this story. Given that this is called The Book Thief we felt that it would have been nice to be given more background on the significance of the books, or even references at the end so the reader could also share the books that Leisel stole.

Overall we gave this book 8 out of 10.

The book thief is and action packed book with sadness through out.
The characters in the book flourish through out the book making it more enjoyable and exciting to read. Its a book with a very powerful message that can be read by all and enjoyed by a lot of people.

coz its good :)

It's a very original view of WW2 as it is told by death. It makes you think about stuff you would never have thought about if you hadn't read it

An amazing book set during the war. A long but excellent read. Could not stop reading this book! I suggest that anyone that enjoys a challenging read should read this.
KEEP READING!!!

Absolutely loved this book, mastered beautiful with the skill of writing that Markus Zusak has.
The way he was able to write from the perspectives of Jews, the Germans and young children that went through the horrific period of world war two.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and would definitely recommend to anyone!!
Loved it!

Such a fantastic book, a great balance of fiction and non fiction based in world war 2.
A great twist of stories and great descriptions and perspectives from those who lived during that period.
Brilliant!

New author to me. Thoroughly enjoyed the book and the style of writing (the book is narrated by Death). Would recommend.

I really enjoyed reading the book, which tells the 10 year old Liesel's story.

Combined with historical background knowledge about Nazi Germany, it shows how the war impacted on the folk. The idea of using death as the narrator is genius and the style of writing gives a lot of space for interpretation. It also emphasizes the impact of books and words and their might,

Very thought-provoking read
Narrated in the all-knowing matter-of-fact voice of Death, witnessing the story of the citizens of Molching. By 1943, the Allied bombs are falling, and the sirens begin to wail. Liesel shares out her books in the air-raid shelters. But one day, the wail of the sirens comes too late

We loved this book! Reading about experiences of the War from a German perspective was enlightening.

Challenging to read, the flow and style I found difficult to stick with. Liesel was probably my favourite character. I'd probably not recommend it.

An amazing book full of a mixture of emotions :)

This is an amazing book about the trouble people faced in the ww2 in Germany. It is sad as well I was crying at some parts. I like how descriptive it is and who narrates the story. It is about a girl called Liesel who's mother is a communist she and her brother are going to be adopted to keep them safe. This is my favourite book ever!

This is the best book in the entire universe, solar system- everywhere. If you haven't read it you haven't lived.

This book is incredible and exhilarating. It is a book that is new and original and has an educational side to it, as it is about Germany in WW11. It is definitely a book at the top of my must reads. You can definitely lose yourself in this book and find the pages mound down in large chunks. Read it now !

This book described the love of books and I found it really interesting.

This is an exhilarating adventure of love , heartache and Nazi Germany. Thrust apart from her mother and witnessing her brothers death , Liesl Meminger begins a whole new life. Slowly she begins to love her new parents , and becomes intrigued with stealing books . Soon, however, she will be separated from her loved ones once again.

This book was a very effective story and it really makes you appreciate the things that you have in life. The tragic story of Liesal is so shattering and jaw-dropping that it just makes you want to pray and thank God that you have the life that you have at the moment. The problems in life that we are facing are nothing compared to what poor Liesal has to go through. So I recommend that everyone should read this emotional book.

it is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE

This book has a special meaning. In many war books it shows us the perspective of a soldier or someone in England experiencing World War 2. However it is rare you get the point of view of a German. This books shows us the horrors that Liesel experiences. It is rare that you can replace your true mother and father however Liesel had a very close connection with her foster parents. In the book thief Liesel never had a perspective on her father and by the end of the novel she was , Hans Huberman (her adopted father) is able to give her that. However what makes this book truly special is that it is told in the perspective of an creature , death. Death also shows us his isolation from the world but he is ok with that because he has seen many horrors that he prefers to be who he is. The book also shows us the true beauty of reading , Liesel cannot read but she is intrigued be the words and the beauty of stories and she puts herself in many dangers for her passion of reading. The book has many sad parts but it is also very good at the end because Liesel is reunited with an old family friend.

Nazi Germany really spices the book up.