The Book Thief-- SPOILER ALERT!!!
Liesel Meminger has been dealt a hard life. As if it wasn't bad enough that she was growing up in Nazi Germany, her brother dies in front of her eyes as she is being taken to live with a family she has never met. At her brother's grave she finds something that allows her to make it through. She finds and steals her first book. Told through the eyes and voice of Death, Liesel's story is both heart-breaking and heart-warming.
Hans and Rosa Hubermann expected two children to come and stay with them but instead they go one distraught girl. Hans manages to comfort her and Liesel and him become close. Rosa is tough and strict but still loves Liesel very much. Liesel has nightmares every night of her brother's death. Hans starts to sit with her and then reads the book she stole to her. He starts teaching her to read. Liesel loves to read and jumps at the chance to read new books. She does not steal again for a long while though.
Rudy Steiner is a boy about Liesel's age that lives down the road from the Hubermanns. Him and Liesel become fast friends and they start to spend all their spare time together. When their school participates in a Nazi book-burning Liesel steals her second book. It wasnot so much stealing as saving from the fire but Liesel is exhilarated. She does not want to steal anymore but she wants to read more books. Her wish is granted when she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the mayors wife. They have a huge library and Liesel likes to sit in it and read. However, after the two have a falling out Liesel feels driven to steal the book she had been reading from their library.
Meanwhile, Hans has hidden a Jew (the son of a friend that had saved him in war) in their basement. His name is Max and he hates putting the Hubermanns in dager but has a strong will to live. Him and Liesel become very close and he even writes her a book over top of pages from a copy of Mein Kampf. He leaves them when the Nazi's start to search homes and is later caught and put in a concentration camp. Liesel sees him on a march to a new camp and cries and hugs him.
The bombings have started to get worse and their neighborhood is often forced to hide in a basement together. One night they were not given warning for a bombing and Liesel was downstairs finishing a book that she was writing on her life. The bomb killed everyone in their neighborhood except Liesel. She is heartbroken as she sees the bodies of her foster parents, Rudy, and Rudy's family. The mayor and his wife take her in. Later, Rudy's father comes back from war and she works with him at his store. After the war is over and the camps have been liberated, Max comes to find her. The book ends with death taking her after she has had a long life. Death shows her the book that she had wrote in the basement that had saved her life.
Liesel Meminger has been dealt a hard life. As if it wasn't bad enough that she was growing up in Nazi Germany, her brother dies in front of her eyes as she is being taken to live with a family she has never met. At her brother's grave she finds something that allows her to make it through. She finds and steals her first book. Told through the eyes and voice of Death, Liesel's story is both heart-breaking and heart-warming.
Hans and Rosa Hubermann expected two children to come and stay with them but instead they go one distraught girl. Hans manages to comfort her and Liesel and him become close. Rosa is tough and strict but still loves Liesel very much. Liesel has nightmares every night of her brother's death. Hans starts to sit with her and then reads the book she stole to her. He starts teaching her to read. Liesel loves to read and jumps at the chance to read new books. She does not steal again for a long while though.
Rudy Steiner is a boy about Liesel's age that lives down the road from the Hubermanns. Him and Liesel become fast friends and they start to spend all their spare time together. When their school participates in a Nazi book-burning Liesel steals her second book. It wasnot so much stealing as saving from the fire but Liesel is exhilarated. She does not want to steal anymore but she wants to read more books. Her wish is granted when she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the mayors wife. They have a huge library and Liesel likes to sit in it and read. However, after the two have a falling out Liesel feels driven to steal the book she had been reading from their library.
Meanwhile, Hans has hidden a Jew (the son of a friend that had saved him in war) in their basement. His name is Max and he hates putting the Hubermanns in dager but has a strong will to live. Him and Liesel become very close and he even writes her a book over top of pages from a copy of Mein Kampf. He leaves them when the Nazi's start to search homes and is later caught and put in a concentration camp. Liesel sees him on a march to a new camp and cries and hugs him.
The bombings have started to get worse and their neighborhood is often forced to hide in a basement together. One night they were not given warning for a bombing and Liesel was downstairs finishing a book that she was writing on her life. The bomb killed everyone in their neighborhood except Liesel. She is heartbroken as she sees the bodies of her foster parents, Rudy, and Rudy's family. The mayor and his wife take her in. Later, Rudy's father comes back from war and she works with him at his store. After the war is over and the camps have been liberated, Max comes to find her. The book ends with death taking her after she has had a long life. Death shows her the book that she had wrote in the basement that had saved her life.