The Book Thief

Back in May 2013 I read one of the most amazing books ever. The Book Thief has been added to one of my favorite books of all times. Last night, I rented the movie. I'm not a big fan of reading books and then watching the movie because I am always disappointed. With The Book Thief, I wasn't. The book and the movie, for me, has a dark deep edge to it. Everyone needs to read the book and/or watch the movie. It is not a feel good book and movie. But it made me think about the people who lived in Germany during WWII in a different way. Not all agreed with everything that was going on. And the struggle to just survive living in a place that is at war hurts me. As a mother I couldn't imagine what they had to go through. Below is my review of the book. Please read the book, watch the movie and let me know what you thought about it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an amazing book. So many books out there about World War II, or at least any that I've read, are about the people that the Germans focus their efforts on. In this story, we follow Liesel Meminger as she is fostered by a family who is German. We follow her from the eyes of death. He, we, first meet Liesel when her brother dies on the train that is taking her to her foster parents house. At the gravesite one of the gravedigger drops his handbook and she takes it. Not being able to read, her new Papa uses this as a way for the two of them to bond.

We follow her as she makes friends with the boy next door, tries to not anger her new Mama, as she goes to school and starts working because the family is poor.

When the war is declared the neighborhood she lives in starts to become a ghost town. People leave ever day, because they are Jews or become part of Hitler's Army. People are turning in people they have known their whole lives and daily air bombings are happening. We come to see the struggle that the people, the children, of this time had to go through as they were forced into a war they didn't all believe in. Mama and Papa turn out to be one of the many families who helped Jewish people hide and escape. They were good, hard working people, who hated what was happening around them. We come to love Liesel, Mama, and Papa. We laughed with them, cried, felt their hunger pains and mourned with them.

The Book Thief, for me, was so much more than a foster girl coming to learn to love to read and write during a time where education wasn't the main focus. It showed me the struggle of a family on the "other" side of the war. One that didn't believe in it. One that went against it in silent to help as many people as they could. A family that starved so they could save up food for the Jew living in the basement that is almost at deaths door. They showed Liesel what a family looks like. Not always pretty but always there for each other, no matter what.

When Papa went off to war, I cried with Mama. I cried when he came back for Liesel. He was her everything. And then I cried when the bomb took everyone from her. She had gone through so much up to that point. I didn't want her to grieve or loose another person. But that is life, it doesn't care how many you have already lost.

I can't wait for my boys to be older, so they can read this book. Such a powerful story.


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