The Book Thief by Markus Zusack

The Book Thief 

I found this book difficult at first, but the more I read through it, the more I liked it. By the time I finished, it became one of those books that will remain in my heart forever. The story is that of an ordinary girl, Liesel, who grew up on an ordinary street in Germany during the Second World War. The book is narrated by the character Death, which in particular makes it memorable. He keeps telling us when he is needed and when he will come back soon, and how busy he was on certain days. But he follows Liesel in particular and so narrates the story of her life.

I found the book in the teen section of the library, but I'm not sure why someone decided it should go there. I'm still not sure if the themes of the Holocaust should even be told to teens. The book contains a man who is hidden in the basement, a father who is forced into labor for the Nazis, a teen who refuses to join the Nazi Youth, lots of bombing and of course a large amount of death. For me, by the time I finished the book I felt I knew the people in the book really well, and that is full credit to the author's writing.

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