Summer Assignment, Post 4

Finally done. Hour after hour, page after page and I've finally finished. I’m not saying the book was bad just long. I mean the book, The Book Thief for any one just joining us, could easy be separated in to two, maybe three other books, but, no, the author keeps all together making it a very, very long read. The ending is sad for those who don’t read the epilogue (I, for one, did) and the whole reason I picked this book to begin with was to finish what a started. I once tried to read this book, gave up after the first chapter, it was just to intimidating, but now that I have broken through, I can see some life lessons coming through as well. Most of them, I must admit, I ether ignored or they simple went over my head, but the one that hit home the most was the fact the Liesel never gave up on the books. Even when the world was crumbling around her, she still trusted in the books. She even says; “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I made them right.” She says this during an air raid. Now at first this made no sense to me, ‘why on earth is she worried about the words, run for cover all ready?’  Now that the book has finished I can see that she wasn't worried about the words, she wanted to know that she did the justice. She wanted to know that she read what the authors set out to do.  I all ways try to do the same thing. Why was this book written, to make me laugh, then let yourself chuckle,

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes long, emotional books. I would keep this book a way from anyone who doesn't like to think when they read. And remember, keep going, don’t give up, you won’t regret it. Hope you enjoyed    

Summer Assignment, Post 3

Hello and welcome back to the Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  Book has been hard going but, finally, the end is in sight. I mean really this book is a long one but it’s been a good read so far. But, alas, we are not here to hear about my efforts in this book, but to have you embark on a similar journey into the folds of the book (by the way, that was easy the coolest sentence I have ever written). So let’s get started.

This passage is from a section of the book where Liesel and Ruby, one of her friends, are breaking into the mayor’s house to steal a book that belongs to the mayor’s wife, who, in Liesel option, is not worthy to have it. Rudy how ever has never heard of the book or the mayor wife, just thinks that Liesel is here to steal something of worth, to sell or eat. Hope you enjoy.

“They scouted the street and crossed the yard silently. Now they were crouched beneath the slit in the window on the ground floor. The sound of their breathing amplified.

‘Here,” Rudy said, ‘give me your shoes. You’ll be quieter.’

Liesel breaking in the the Mayor's house

Without complaint, Liesel undid the worn black laces and left the shoes on the ground. She rose up and Rudy gently opened the window just wide enough for Liesel to climb through. The noise of it passed overhead, like a low-flying plane.  Liesel heaved herself onto the ledge and tussled her way inside. Taking off her shoes, she realized, was a brilliant idea, as she landed mush heavier on the wooden floor then she anticipated. The soles of her feet expanded in that painful way, rising to the inside edges of her socks.

The room itself was as it always was.

Liesel, in the dusty dimness, shrugged off her feelings of nostalgia. She crept forward and allowed her eyes to adjust.

‘What’s going on?’ Rudy whispered sharply from the outside, but she waved him a backhander the meant Halt’s Maul. Keep Quiet.

‘The food,’ he reminded her. ‘Find the food. And Cigarettes, if you can.’

Both items, however, were the last things on her mind. She was home, among the mayor’s books of every color and description, with their silver and gold lettering. She could smell the pages. She could almost taste the words as they stacked up around her. Her feet took her to the right- hand wall. She knew the on she wanted- the exact position-but when she made it to The Whistler’s usual place on the shelf, it was not there. A slight gap was in its place.

From above, she heard footsteps.”

As you can guess, they don’t get caught.  They leave the house, return home, and Liesel cements her name as the book thief. Also this shows you how long this book is when you hear that this passage fit on to almost half a page in the book, half a page! Well I must now leave to continue my journey in to the heart of this beast of the book until next post, Hoped you enjoyed.

Summer Assignment, Post 2

Liesel reading to Max 

Hey, it’s me again. Well things in the book thief are heating up, with nightly air raids and a hidden Jew in their basement; things for the Hubermann family have never been more dangerous. They feel so many things at the arrival of Max, the son of Hans Hubermann old war friend. Liesel wants to help Max because she is a kind person and because she feels loyal to her foster parents, but with that are all so the fear of being caught with a Jew in the heart of Nazism. There is also the curiosity of the man that all your life you have been told to hate and the anger of helping the enemy when you yourself are just getting by.  This all goes through Liesel head but she acts on the better half, helping hide Max and feed him, and talk to him. This shows that she is a good curious person at heart, which is also supported by her need of books.  She risks her life for them, by saving them form fires, and steals them for people how (in her eyes) are on fit to own them. Even death, the narrator of this story, says “She (Liesel) need them, the books, and she would do what was needed for them.”

Quote from Death

                This book is full of quotes form death like the one above. The author uses the little quote from death to add humor or to clarify situations or define forging words. He can just stop the story to tell you what you need to know. It’s one of the few books that I have read that have something like that so just like to put that out there.

                Now on to the one of the important things about the book: theme. If the books don’t have a good message to get across, then there is no point in writing the story. The theme in the Book Thief is (in my option) the theme is no matter how bad something feels, it can always be made better.  I mean, look a Liesel.  She is forced to go to rich people houses to collect the cloths to be washed so the rich people don’t have the heart to fire them. She makes this better by visiting the mayors’ library and talking to her friends. She makes it better.

This finishes off my second summer blog post over theme, complexity of characters, and book structure. Hope you enjoyed            

Summer Assignment, Post 1

I doing the Book Thief by Markus Zusak and It was a very good book. Long winded at times and just long in general it, so far has been a hard read, but I've worked my way through so far, but you are not here to hear about my struggle, so let’s get on topic.  The Main character by the new of Liesel Meminger, a curious young girl, who, on a train to Munich, discovers that her brother is dead.  This, also, is not where the book begins. The begin is three very short chapters about the same girl, the book thief, as are Narrator calls her.  The three chapters all are about the little girl being close to someone who has died who makes more sense once we know that the narrator is Death, and he is witnessing these events first hand and the first time Death sees the “book thief” is when he comes to get her brother. This leaves me with a few questions, 1. Why would the narrator be death if he could only see Liesel when someone dies around her, but still be able to recount her life?  Death himself says “Stupidly I stay. I watch.”  He is on dead line (no pun intended) but yet he can stay and follow a girl around her whole life. Which also brings into the setting in to play, they are in Germany…Nazi Germany which most likely means WWII is going on or starting, so death should be working overtime. The another question I have is that during those chapters there is a lot of colors that death sees (which is how I know they are in Nazi Germany, death saw a Nazi flag and Munich is in Germany). Why is this so prominent in his narration?  Anyway, back to the story.

 Liesel and her mother get off the train to bury her brother in the graveyard of the next town on the track which is never named. At the funeral, the only attendees being Liesel, her mother, the priest, and a gravedigger and apprentice.  Liesel steals the apprentice’s copy of The Grave Diggers Handbook, which marks her “…beginning of an illustrious career.” This is could also be a conflict because during the Rise of Nazi Germany, according to the History channel, The Nazis were burning books that were not in line with their way of thinking.  If Liesel steals a book from one of these bonfires, (as I think she will) she would become an Enemy of the Nazi party, which, in Nazi Germany, would not be the smartest thing to do.

After the funeral and when they get under way again.  They arrive in Munich and Liesel mother leaves her with the adoption agency, in the hope that Liesel could have a better life and would be safe from the war.   When they arrive at the foster care parents’ house, Liesel refuses to live the car they arrived in. this reminds me of the first book of the gatekeeper series. In both books the main character is forced into the foster care system, even though they have no want for it and both make physical efforts to resist.  The foster parents are Hans (a kind painter by trade and lover of both smoking and playing the piano accordion.) and Rosa (a loud, spoken women who loves Liesel, and shows it by “Bashing her with wooden spoons and words at various intervals) Hubermann. Also on the block is the boy Rudy Steiner, who seems to fall in love with Liesel and, who, if guess right, will helper steal some books.

                Well, this concludes my first blog post over the book thief, on the topic of main characters, conflicts, and setting. Hope you enjoyed.