The Book Thief

The book I chose to read was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  Once I started reading this book I found it hard to put down.  At this point I am about halfway through this book.  The story, although very sad, is captivating and you become very attached to the characters.  Although the book is narrated by Death the story focuses on young Liesel Meminger and her life growing up in Nazi Germany.  Liesel is forced to leave her family and go live with foster parents in Molching, where her life is far from easy.  The novel gives you a look at the horrors and sorrows of war through a young girl’s eyes. Despite the creative identity of the narrato
r the story and characters are very real. I have read book about the holocaust and learned about WWII in history classes but this book was different that anything I had read before.  I think this story does a good job humanizing people on both sides of the conflict.    I think the purpose of this book is to show what life was like for civilians during this terrible war.  I enjoy the characters that Zusak creates, all of them are flawed but none are without their merits.  This book is definitely geared to older children, I would not recommend it to anyone in a younger grade.