Before I read The Book Thief, I thought it was an educational book that taught people that reading is essential. However, I was fascinated and touched by the stories when I read The Book Thief. It’s not just a book about reading, but also a book about war, love, and death. As Markus Zusak, who incarnates as Death, wrote in the prologue, “It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: A girl, Some Words, An accordionist, Some fanatical Germans, A Jewish Fist Fighter, And quite a lot of thievery” (Prologue, 16).
During the period of World War II, the situation in Germany and around the world was stifling. On the train going towards Munich, a nine-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger and her mother and brother fall asleep. Unfortunately, her brother, Werner, will fall asleep forever at this moment. Liesel and her mother get off the train and bury Werner with two guards and two gravediggers. One of the gravediggers drops a book there; a kind of magic pushed Liesel to pick up this book, even though she can’t read. Then, Liesel and her mother stay on their trip to Molching where Liesel will be raised in the little town. In front of a small house, Liesel meets her new father, Hans Hubermann, and her new mother, Rosa Hubermann. Initially, Liesel is pretty nervous and even doesn’t like her foster parents. But as time goes on, Liesel finds out that her foster parents are kind and see her as their own kid; she begins to open her heart to her foster parents, especially her papa. When Hans discovers that Liesel can’t read and write, he begins teaching her the alphabet. The first book that they read together is the book that Liesel stole from the gravedigger. Liesel also meets Rudy, a boy who is obsessed with the athlete Jesse Owen. One “annoying” thing for Liesel is that Rudy keeps bothering her to kiss him.
Another memorable day comes. On the day of Adolf Hitler’s birthday, radical Germans and soldiers of Molching hold a ceremony and burn all the books which have the opposite ideology with Nazism. After the burning ceremony, that same kind of magic makes Liesel steal a book again. This becomes the secret between Hans and Liesel. Rosa also begins to trust Liesel; she sends Liesel to deliver the clothes to their customers. One important customer is the mayor’s wife, Frau Hermann. One day, Frau Hermann invites Liesel to read in her study and tells her some of her son's stories. The story changes when in Liesel’s house, a special guest named Max comes in. Max is the son of the savior of Hans during World War I; Hans made a promise to Max’s father is that he will do his best to protect his life-saver’s family. However, Max is Jewish. Hans and Rosa hide Max in the basement, and he becomes Liesel’s friend. For some reason, Frau Hermann doesn’t allow Liesel to their house and rejects Rosa's laundry works. One day, heavy snow falls on Molching; Liesel brings snow down to the basement. Liesel’s family and Max build a snowman. Yet the melting snow put Max into a coma. With the help of Rudy, Liesel begins to steal the books from Frau Hermann’s study. She reads hundreds of books to Max. He finally wakes up from the long coma, but he knows that the longer time he stays here, the more dangerous the Hubermann’s family will face. Therefore, he leaves Hubermann’s house that night.
Because of the severe situation on the battlefield, Hans and Rudy’s father are recruited. Rudy is recruited by the German Elites School. But his father refuses. Rosa then gives Liesel a book that Max left for he titled The Word Shaker. It tells the story of the friendship between Liesel and him. Luckily, Hans gets back by breaking his leg in a crash while the other soldiers who sit in the same car with Hans all died. Another accident is not far from this point. Liesel and Rudy find a pilot who crashes the plane, and they see the death of him. When Liesel sees that Max is in the Jewish prisoner parade, she tells the story between Max and her to Rudy.
Frau Hermann gives Liesel a blank book, then Liesel can begin writing her own story. The real obstacle in the story comes after this book. When Liesel is writing her book in the basement, the bombing appears to Molching. When Liesel is rescued, she helplessly finds that all the people who love her are dead. Her dearest parents close their eyes; the kind boy Rudy lies there without a move. The workers carry her, but she leaves a final memorial, a book titled The Book Thief. Years by, Liesel finally meets Max again. She also has a new life and new family.
Particularly unique to this book is the timeline. As the story is written as a true story, autobiographical in nature, then the narrator must be someone who is omnipresent. The person or the “thing” who is reading the story to us is therefore Death. Actually, at the beginning of this book, we already met Death. Death needs to collect the soul of the dead people, so he meets Liesel three times—on the train, near the crashing plane, and the miserable bomb. Death also says that he read The Book Thief three times and shares it with us. Three is a significant number in The Book Thief. Except for the two meanings of three that Death tells us, there are more meanings about Three. The three main reading chances that Liesel gets are from the gravedigger, from the burning ceremony, and from Frau Hermann; the three primary leaves that Liesel experienced are the leaving of her original mother and brother, the leaving of Max, and the leaving of her foster parents and Rudy.
Liesel grows up from her story, and she learns a lot from what she experienced. This is apparent in Liesel’s character and traits, Liesel’s ability to read, and Liesel’s feelings about love. But in my opinion, there might be another change that it’s hard to find. It is HATE. Nazis are an awful and absolute damned group. We can see that when Liesel first goes to school and receives Nazi teachings, she has not yet found what a terrible and horrible institution it is. But along with the rebarbative behaviors that Nazism show, Liesel realizes the unethical underpinnings of their ideology and the evil deeds Nazis do. I also watched the movie for The Book Thief, and the scene of Liesel and Rudy crying in the mountain “I hate Hitler” is particularly memorable. Kids are innocent and naïve; bad people destroy their family and hometown, then the children will hate them. They don’t need to consider political issues, so what they say is almost always what they think.
The Book Thief is an incredible book. The narrator is unique and mysterious; he seems to show himself to us, but we never see him entitative in the whole book. The inner meanings of it are profound. We as students learn a lot from it. I will say that if you open this book and read it for only ten minutes, you will be fascinated by it. For me, I might be like Death; I will read The Book Thief for a second time and then a third time.