Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this book is intended for teens and adults. In addition to the swearing, omnipresent cigarettes, and devastating violence, it's written in a style that most kids under 14 will simply find too dense.
Families who read this book could discuss the historical background, the willingness of the Germans to go along with Hitler, the dangerous refusal of a few. They could also talk about the way these rough-edged characters care for each other and express affection and why the author chose Death to narrate.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
It doesn't get much worse than World War II for sheer bloody-minded carnage, destruction, and hate -- it takes a lot of art to bring something wonderful out of that. Yet such is the heroic and subtle job author Markus Zusak does here, that the reader, for instance, feels nothing but pity when the most virulent Nazi on the block loses both her sons to the war.
This is not a novel of how awful the Germans were and how wonderful the Allies were -- it's a novel of how complex and rich and human everyone is. And having Death tell the story emphasizes the soul that is inside everyone, that he sees clearly, but that we poor humans only glimpse from time to time.
This is a very long book, and the author takes his sweet time getting on with it. In the beginning the reader can be forgiven for thinking that the art is awfully self-conscious and the Death narrator is a ham-handed gimmick, and wish that the author would quit mucking about. But Zusak is sneakier than you realize, and once he gets rolling along, the participation of Death is first seamless -- and then essential, as his care for the humans who haunt him comes shining through.
And there's a powerful payoff in the Shakespearean (or perhaps Wagnerian would be more appropriate) ending when Zusak wallops you again and again with the fates of these people, good and bad, whom you've come to care about. This is a devastatingly powerful book that bears several rereadings, and it should become a staple of literature discussion groups for sophisticated teen and adult readers.
From The Book
Possibly the only good to come out of these nightmares was that it brought Hans Hubermann, her new papa, into the room, to soothe her, to love her.
He came in every night and sat with her. The first couple of times he simply stayed -- a stranger to kill the aloneness. A few night after that, he whispered, "Shhh, I'm here, it's all right." After three weeks, he held her. Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man's gentleness, his thereness. The girl knew from the outset that Hans Hubermann would always appear midscream, and he would not leave.
A DEFINITION NOT FOUND IN THE DICTIONARY -- Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children.
Plot Summary:
Death himself narrates the story of Liesel, a German girl left with foster parents just before the outbreak of World War II. Along the way to her new home with her younger brother, he dies, and after the funeral Liesel steals The Gravedigger's Handbook, though she cannot yet read. It is only the first of what will become a series of book thefts.
As she settles in with her harsh but caring foster mother, Rosa, and kind foster father, Hans, she gets to know her poor neighborhood and learns to read. Her obsession with books grows as the war closes in, rationing is put in place, air raids begin, and Hans takes in a Jewish man to hide in the basement. And through it all, Death travels the Earth, taking in more and more souls every day.
Related Books:
Other Books by Markus Zusak
I Am the Messenger
Fighting Ruben Wolfe
Getting the Girl
More About WWII
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Dolphin Crossing by Jill Paton Walsh
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War by Anita Lobel
Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff
Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Kindergarten by Peter Rushforth
Postcards from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
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Sexual ContentA boy and a girl imagine each other naked. |
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ViolenceIn addition to the violence of the war, which causes the deaths of many major beloved characters, there are also beatings, whippings, fights, and a suicide. |
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LanguageA fair amount of swearing, both in English and German, including both "s---" and various religiously-themed curses, such as "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." |
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Social BehaviorSeveral people do what's right at the risk of their lives. There is also much anti-Semitism and hate, some remarks about the subhuman nature of blacks, and kids engage in petty thievery, both for food and for fun. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoAdults and children smoke and drink champagne. |
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