"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right." Liesel, an orphaned girl, is sent to live with a foster family right before the Nazis take over Germany. She has a peculiar attachment to books, her first being a gravedigger's manual that she picks up during her brother's funeral. Death takes an interest in her and her books on that day and follows her, sometimes constantly and sometimes at a distance. There's just something so...fascinating...about her that Death ...

THE BOOK THIEF: A Summary. Liesel: Hi, I'm Liesel. I have no personality, but I'm a cute little girl. Death: Her name is not Liesel. Her name is THE BOOK THIEF and I shall name her that for the rest of the book.Liesel: Even though I stole, like, 3 books in total or something. Death: Shut up, Book Thief.Rudy: Hello everyone. Have you ever seen a lemon? That's what my hair looks like. Death: Here is a little information you should know: this book is filled with many interesting facts. Very relevan...

“When death captures me,” the boy vowed, “he will feel my fist on his face.”Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry.Yes.I like that a lot.A few days ago, when I was starting *The Book Thief* by Markus Zusak, my mother stopped by and saw the book on my coffee table. Having just read *The Book Thief* herself (and knowing me better than anyone else in the world, I might add), she was determined to save me from myself. She did her very best to convince me not to read it. She described i...

I hate when this happens, I truly do. It makes me feel so wrong when everyone else loves a book that I find underwhelming... I mean, what's wrong with me?? Did I miss something?? It must be a lack of intelligence or something because *everyone* seems to rate this 5 stars. I was looking through my friends' reviews hoping someone would share my opinion – even just a little bit – and seeing 5 stars, 5 stars, 4.5 stars, 5 stars... I can appreciate that Markus Zusak is a very talented writer. Som...

Just to clarify: Yes, I did cry.I've read a lot of positive and negative reviews for this book. I can see why people wouldn't like it – I really can. Perhaps because I took a lot out of it personally, I found I enjoyed it a lot.Quick test to see if you'll like this book:1. Did you like Anne of Green Gables?2. Can you cope with an off-beat, melancholy, caustic, dead-pan, self-righteous narrator?3. Do you like words?(Questions 4-8 were all about what kind of underwear you're wearing so don't worry...

Markus Zusak's *The Book Thief* was published as a Young Adult novel. Don’t believe it for a second. This is a phenomenal novel, suitable for readers of all ages. My wife was a blubbering mess by the time she finished, and she insisted I dive in immediately. How could I refuse? I was braced for an emotional rollercoaster, and *The Book Thief* definitely delivered. Sophie Nélisse as Liesel Meminger - from TV Guide We're introduced to Liesel Meminger, the main character, just before her tenth birt...

UPDATE: AUG 26, 2016: This review has been here 8 years, has 18 pages of 854 comments and 764 likes. There's no outrage for you to add in the comments section that hasn't already been addressed.If you want to talk about the book, or why you liked it, or anything else, feel free. UPDATE: FEB 17, 2014: I wrote this review 4 years ago on a foreign keyboad, so I'm well aware that I spelled Chekhov's name wrong. I'm not going to fix it, so please don't drive my review further up in the rankings by co...

Apparently, I'm one of the few who just don't get the hype surrounding "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. After all the rave reviews, I was genuinely excited to read it, but ended up hugely disappointed. The writing felt stilted and jerky (hard to pull off stuttering in writing, but this book manages it), overly sentimental, and the symbolism was just laid on way too thick. I also found Zusak's approach to the story completely gimmicky. The biggest gimmick (also see: heavy-handed symbolism) is t...

This is a book to treasure, a new classic. I absolutely loved it. Set in Germany in the years 1939-1943, *The Book Thief* tells the story of Liesel, narrated by Death who has in his possession the book she wrote about these years. So, in a way, they are both book thieves. Liesel steals randomly at first, and later more methodically, but she's never greedy. Death pockets Liesel's notebook after she leaves it, forgotten in her grief, amongst the destruction that was once her street, her home, and...

I kept putting off reading The Book Thief for my book club. Here are the three reasons why:1) It's a Young Adult Book. I'm an adult. How good could it really be if it's written for teenagers?2) It's about the Holocaust, and honestly, haven't we all heard enough? I figured the author would probably even focus on finding color in all the gray, like in "Schindler's List."3) I have WAY too many other books on my to-read list.After avoiding The Book Thief for as long as humanly possible, I finally sa...