The Book Thief

I just heard on the radio the other day, that a movie is about to be released based on one of my favorite young adult novels The Book Thief.  I have not written a review of this book in the past, so I thought I would recommend it now.  I am a BIG believer in reading a book BEFORE you see the movie.  Often large sections of books need to be cut from movies, making the story less powerful, and my guess is this will be true of The Book Thief as well. 

Death is the narrator of this story.  Yes, Death itself.  This makes for a unique voice to tell the story.  Set during World War II in Germany, big themes of family, trust, and safety are explored within the story, and it often leave you shaken and inspired all at the same time.  See a complete summary of the plot below, and take the time to read the book before you see the movie!

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.