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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

• Publication Date: March 14, 2006
• Genres: Fiction , Historical Fiction
• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• ISBN-10: 0375831002
• ISBN-13: 9780375831003
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The Book Thief Discussion Questions

• In the opening of the book when Liesel steals her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook , this event can be thought of as the first of many turning points for her. What are some of the others? Talk about each major character and what their turning points are, as well as turning points for the community as a whole.
• Knowing that Liesel is called a “thief,” how does the book complicate our ideas of justice and judgment? Which characters do you view as just/unjust or brave/cowardly, and why? Which events or details most color your perceptions of these characters?
• What choices do characters make about groups they will belong to? What groups do they belong to without choice? What are the consequences?
• Discuss Liesel’s friendship with Rudy. Does she love him in the way he loves her, or is it a child’s love? Do you think he reminds her of her brother?
• Zusak’s books often portray characters with a tendency to fight—including Max and Liesel. Is a child who fights more forgivable that an adult who fights? Why?
• From Hans to Liesel to the mayor’s wife, discuss how some of the characters in The Book Thief deal with their past. Discuss themes of memory and punishment.
• Is Hans Hubermann a courageous man? How does he show courage, or lack of courage?
• Name some acts of resistance in the book, from large to small. What does the author intend with his inclusion of these acts?
• Who has power in this book? How does Liesel gain power, and how does Max? Toward the end of the novel Liesel remarks to herself that words give power. How so?
• Discuss the meaning of Max painting over Mein Kampf . What is he able to express by doing this and by drawing over it, that he cannot convey in person?

Thanks to Facing History and Ourselves for its valuable input on these questions.

Content last updated: October 31, 2012

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THE BOOK THIEF

Suggesting a Cross-Curricular Approach Coordinating ELA and History Classes

SUBJECTS — World/Germany, WW-II, ELA (theme, personification, symbol, & irony);

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Families in Crisis;

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Responsibility, Caring.

AGE : 13+; MPAA Rating — PG-13 for some violence and intense depiction of thematic material;

Drama; 2013, 121 minutes; Color. Available from Amazon.com .

HAVE STUDENTS READ THE BOOK! The best selling novel on which the movie is based is truly a wonder and is loved by millions, teenage and adult. The movie retains the remarkable human characters who are the foundation of the story, the setting, and many of the events described in the book. However, no movie can capture the depth of this novel and much has necessarily been lost in the adaptation of 550 pages of text to a two-hour film.

This Learning Guide contains materials for teaching the novel as well as the movie. The more students know about pre-WWII Germany, the Holocaust, the Blitz, and the Allies’ devastating response, the more they will appreciate Markus Zusak’s worldwide best-seller. Thus, TWM suggests cooperation between ELA and history instructors. However, the Guide also provides the basic historical background that can be used by ELA teachers when there is no opportunity to coordinate with a history instructor.

This Guide includes reports of actual events on which a few episodes in the story are based. These increase the veracity of both the novel and the film.

Benefits of the Movie Possible Problems Parenting Points Selected Awards & Cast Helpful Background

Using the Movie in the Classroom Discussion Questions Social-Emotional Learning Moral-Ethical Emphasis

Assignments and Projects Bridges to Reading Links to the Internet Bibliography

MOVIE WORKSHEETS & STUDENT HANDOUTS

TWM offers the following movie worksheets to keep students’ minds on the film and to focus their attention on the lessons to be learned from the movie.

Film Study Worksheet for ELA Classes ;

Film Study Worksheet for Social Studies Classes for a Work of Historical Fiction

Worksheet for Cinematic and Theatrical Elements and Their Effects .

Teachers can modify the movie worksheets to fit the needs of each class. See also TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project .

DESCRIPTION

The Book Thief is the tale of a young orphan named Liesel and the people who love her in a small German town just before and during WWII. The story shows that the power of love overcomes tragedy and hardship. Set among civilians living in Nazi Germany, The Book Thief demonstrates that even among a vicious and feared enemy there are valuable people of character. The story leads the reader/viewer to a new understanding of the abrupt and indiscriminate death caused by aerial bombardment of civilian communities.

SELECTED AWARDS & CAST

Selected Awards:

This film received several awards nominations for the best musical score.

Featured Actors:

Sophie Nélisse as Liesel Meminger; Geoffrey Rush as Hans Hubermann; Emily Watson as Rosa Hubermann; Nico Liersch as Rudy Steiner; Roger Allam as Narrator / Death (voice); Heike Makatschn as Liesel’s Mother; Kirsten Block as Frau Heinrich.

Brian Percival.

BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE

When shown after the book has been read, the movie allows teachers to confirm lessons taught using the novel and to demonstrate how a book and its adaptation to film can be independent works of art. For classes in which reading levels do not permit students to experience the novel, the movie is an excellent example of cinematic literature from which lessons about a character-driven story, plot, irony, and theme can be crafted.

Students will gain new understanding of the power of love and the horrors of war. In ELA classes students will be exposed to the important themes set out in the story, be able to analyze a character-driven story, derive its themes, and explore the use of irony. Both novel and movie offer good occasions for discussion and writing assignments. For history classes the story will provide a vivid added dimension to events in Germany before and during WWII, especially of the Allies’ aerial bombardment of Germany.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

Parenting points.

Your child should be aware of the history of WWII set out in the Introductory Section of this Learning Guide. Before watching the film tell him or her that in this story, the narrator is a personification of death. After watching the film, read the selected quotations from the author about some of the real events that are reflected in the story.

HELPFUL BACKGROUND

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE STORY TOLD IN THE NOVEL AND THE STORY TOLD IN THE FILM

“I see the book and film as two completely different things. Like brothers, they might look the same at times, and sound it. They might even have the same blood in their veins. But they go their own ways.” Markus Zusak in the Sydney Morning Herald.

• The movie does not adequately develop and de-emphasizes the character of the narrator, Death.
• In the novel, Max insists upon sleeping in the basement, after his first sleep of several nights. In the movie, it is fear of discovery that sent him downstairs. In the book, the Hubermanns bring Max back up to sleep in Liesel’s room because of the cold in the cellar. This does not occur in the movie.
• The entire food-stealing subplot is not in the movie. The subsidiary characters and the emotional development of the characters of Liesel and Rudy that occur because of the food stealing are absent from the film.
• In the movie, Liesel calms the people in the air-raid shelter by telling them a story reminiscent of Max that allows the audience to reflect on Max’ situation and her reaction to it. In the novel, she reads from a book, an action which is more in sync with the themes of the importance of reading.
• In the novel, Rudy’s father is sent to war as a punishment for not permitting Rudy to attend an elite Nazi school. One of the Zusak family stories that inspired the book was that Marcus Zusak’s grandfather was drafted into the German army as retribution for not allowing his son, Marcus’s father, to be sent to a special Nazi school. The novel includes this story, but in the movie, Rudy’s father is drafted before Rudy is offered the opportunity to go to the school. The only part of this incident that remains in the film is the offer to Rudy to attend the school and his family’s refusal to allow him to go. In the novel, both Hans and Mr. Steiner are drafted as punishment for not cooperating with the Nazi regime.
• In the book, Hans tries to give bread to a starving Jewish man and is whipped for his actions. As a result of this impulsive action, it is not deemed safe for Max to remain hidden in the basement. In the movie, the confrontation with the Nazi authorities that sets up Max leaving the Hubermann’s home occurs when a man is taken away by the Gestapo which has been examining birth certificates looking for people born Jewish who are still at large in the country. Hans protests that he has known the man all his life, and the Gestapo officer pushes Hans to the ground and takes his name. In both novel and film, Liesel and Rudy scatter bread for a column of starving Jews. They are chased by a soldier.
• The subplots of the hatred between Rosa and Mrs. Holtzapfel, the return home of Half-staff’s son, his suicide, and Liesel reading to Mrs. Holtzapfel are not included in the film. Again, this is important information relating to the development of Liesel’s character and themes of the book that were excised from the film, undoubtedly due to time constraints.
• In the novel, the use of walls in the basement for Liesel to learn to read is haphazard and not organized. In the movie, Hans paints section for words of each letter of the alphabet.
• The aspect of Max’s character as a fighter and the origins of his friendship with the man who saved him are not developed in the movie.
• The adult children of the Hubermanns are not in the film. Again, this excludes some interesting background and character development that are included in the novel.
• In the film, the circumstances in which the mayor and his wife stopped using Rosa to wash their laundry are changed, and Liesel doesn’t yell at the mayor’s wife and insult her.

USING THE MOVIE IN THE CLASSROOM

Before Reading the Book or Watching the Movie:

Coordination of classes.

The history teacher should take the lead in providing the historical background necessary to fully understand the story. The topics are set out below. If no history teacher is available to pair with, ELA teachers can provide the essential background from the information set out below. This information can also be provided through student reports.

Background to Help Students Get the Most from the Novel and the Film

Show the locations of Germany, Munich, England, and London. Molching, the fictional town in which the movie is set, is along a major route to the notorious German concentration camp of Dachau.

The First World War

WWI, in which England, France, and Russia fought Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey was one of the deadliest wars in history. The war was at a stalemate until 1917 when the U.S. intervened on behalf of the English and French. Jews fought for their various countries on both sides of the conflict.

The Nazification of German Society

The Nazi party and Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Over time the Nazis thoroughly dominated Germany with all institutions of society being Nazified or disbanded. All dissenters, such as democrats, socialists, communists, and the religious were ruthlessly suppressed. Books which contained writings that did not conform to the Nazi ideology of Aryan superiority were burned. Paintings and other works of art that the Nazis disliked were destroyed.

The Nazi party used propaganda, including Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), to acquire and maintain control over German society.

Hitler Youth and United German Girls

All children were required to belong to the Hitler Youth (for boys) and the United German Girls; the boys were prepared to be soldiers and girls were prepared to be homemakers and mothers. In 1933 Hitler stated that:

My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes…That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication…That is how I will create the New Order.

The Holocaust

In Nazi Germany, Jews, political opponents of the Nazis, socialists, communists, the very religious, the handicapped, and Gypsies were hunted down and placed into concentration camps. The goal of the Nazis was to “purify” Germany of people who were their opponents and of people who didn’t conform to the ideal of an Aryan. In addition, non-Jews from Nazi occupied countries, such as Poland, Russia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Holland, and France were killed in the concentration camps. It is estimated that 6,000,000 Jews died in the concentration camps and another 5,000,000 non-Jews died there as well. In addition, the Germans killed millions in the countries that they conquered without bothering to take them to concentration camps.

The concentration camp at Dachau, which was close to Munich, held clergy, communists and other political opponents of the Nazis, German royals and aristocrats, resistance fighters, scientists, writers and, of course, Jews. The conditions at Dachau were notoriously brutal. In addition, inmates at Dachau were subject to inhumane medical experiments which often caused their deaths. Dachau was also a major slave labor center. Other concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, were established for the purpose of simply killing people.

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht means, in German, “the night of crystal.” On November 9 – 10, 1938 the Nazis coordinated attacks against Jewish synagogues and business throughout Germany, Austria, and German occupied areas of Czechoslovakia. The name comes from the shards of glass from the broken windows of buildings owned by Jews. That night Nazi rioters destroyed 267 synagogues and 7500 businesses. Ninety-one people were killed, and there were numerous rapes. The authorities looked on and, in fact, cooperated. 30,000 young Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated for no reason. Fire fighters would not douse the flames on Jewish-owned buildings but only sought to prevent the flames from spreading to structures owned by non-Jews.

Jesse Owens

Hitler had planned to use the 1936 Summer Olympics which were held in Berlin to show the superiority of Aryan athletes. It didn’t turn out that way, in large part because of Jesse Owens, an African-American. Owens won four gold medals: in the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash, the long jump, and the 4×100 meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the games. Jesse Owens ran track for Ohio State University and held the world record in the long jump for 25 years.

German Bombing of England and Allied Bombing of Germany

World War II saw the first sustained aerial bombing of cities as a strategy of war. In those days, there were no precision-guided bombs as there are now. Aerial bombing was very inaccurate and many bombs missed their targets. In the summer of 1940, the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, started bombing military and industrial sites in England. In September 1940 the Luftwaffe shifted its tactics and bombed civilian areas of British cities, particularly London. The goals were to degrade British industry and military preparedness and to demoralize the population in preparation for a German invasion of England. The bombing of civilian areas lasted for eight months, until the following May, when Hitler gave up on the idea of invading England and turned his attention to Russia. The British called the bombing campaign “the Blitz.” The Blitz only stiffened British resolve to fight.

The German bombing of London was intense. During the first 57 days of the Blitz, London was bombed day and night. In all, 40,000 – 43,000 civilians in London and other British cities were killed by the Luftwaffe between September 1940 and May 1941. Another approximately 46,000 were injured. 1.4 million were made homeless. Later in the war, the British and the Americans repaid the favor with aerial bombing that killed more than 300,000 German civilians, destroying entire neighborhoods. Again, the stated reasons were to degrade war industries, disrupt military preparedness, and demoralize the population. There is no evidence that the air campaign demoralized the German population. While today the indiscriminate killing of civilians from the air would clearly be considered a war crime, no German official was prosecuted for his participation in the Blitz. Some historians contend that this was because the U.S. and British air forces had themselves killed so many civilians from the air.

By the end of the war, the Germans had lost the ability to send bombers to England. However, they fought back with V-2 rockets, the first guided missiles. The V-2s killed about six thousand British civilians and wounded another seventeen thousand. V-2s were more accurate than bombing from airplanes but did not have anything like the accuracy of modern cruise missiles which can hit a specific building. Casualties would have been much worse except for a British disinformation campaign that convinced the Germans that the V-2 rockets were over-shooting London targets by 10 to 20 miles. The Germans fell for it and this limited the V-2’s effectiveness. After the war Germans who worked on the V-2 program, including Wernher von Braun, were recruited by the Allies and the Russians and became leaders of the competing American and Soviet space programs. See The Right Stuff. They were not prosecuted for war crimes.

Special Note for Classes That Watch the Movie But Don’t Read the Book:

Teachers: The movie could have done a better job of introducing the narrator. To correct for this, simply tell students that the story has an unusual narrator: i.e. Death. He starts and ends the film.

After Reading the Novel or Watching the Movie:

The author has stated that the book includes incidents contained in stories told to the author by his parents. Several are set out below. The fact that scenes in the novel and the movie relate to real-life events, that the author’s father had a friend who was mistreated by the Hitler Youth leaders, and that his mother lived with foster parents during the war enhance the story’s veracity. Read or relate the following statements by the author to the class.

When I was growing up in suburban Sydney, I was told stories of cities on fire and Jews being marched to concentration camps. Both my parents grew up in Europe during World War II, and although they were extremely young at the time, in hindsight, they were able to understand many things. Two stories my mother told me about growing up in Munich always stuck with me. One was about a burning sky when the city was bombed. The other was about a boy being whipped on the street for giving a starving Jewish man a piece of bread. The man sank to his knees and thanked the boy, but the bread was stripped away and both the taker of the bread and the giver were punished.

You don’t really think of humor when you think of that time, but there were a lot of funny stories as well. I knew about my dad “jigging” as we say in Australia the Hitler Youth meetings, because he had a friend who suffered at the hands of the leaders. So they just said, “We’re not going. We’re going to go to the river instead and get dirty enough to fool our parents.” Another story I knew was about Hitler’s birthday, and my mother’s foster father refused to fly the Nazi flag. His wife said to him, “You’re going to fly the flag or else they’re going to come for us.” These are the stories I knew, and I thought, “I haven’t seen that on all the documentaries. I’m going to use these because this hasn’t necessarily been done a lot.” Interview with Markus Zusak, Author of The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger Mother/Daughter Book Club; Posted on February 24, 2010, 3:33 p.m.

The author also stated that “… [M]y dad stopped going to Hitler Youth, the same way Rudy did. He was also hand-picked to join a selective school for Nazis and his father was sent to war for refusing to hand him over.” Ten Questions with Markus Zusak Politics and Prose Bookstore;

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

The following discussion questions relate to theme. click here for additional discussion questions on theme and for questions regarding some of the literary-cinematic devices found in the novel or the movie, such as irony, personification, and symbol.

1. Identify a theme from the story that taught you something or confirmed or expanded your understanding of something that you already knew.

Suggested Response:

Students will formulate the themes in their own way. The substance is what is important. Students may also see additional themes in the film. The following suggestions are not in order of importance. They may overlap.

A. The enemy population in war includes many good people and it is a tragedy when they die; thus all civilian casualties are a great loss and a great injustice, as are many military casualties. (As to military casualties, see All Quiet on the Western Front.)

B. Human nature has a strong element of duality. As Death said, “I am always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.” p. 491.

C. Love is the basis of all that is good and great in the human character: it heals, nurtures and allows the best in others and self to flourish.

D. Love is the strongest and most important emotion, having the power to overcome great loss; in other words, the human spirit is strong and can survive many terrible losses through the power of love. [Themes C and D are, of course, related.]

E. Words are extremely powerful because they motivate people to act and affect how people see others.

F. The good in human nature triumphs over everything, including evil and the inevitability and randomness of death.

G. Meeting your responsibilities (as Hans did in hiding Max) is essential for good moral character and self-respect.

2. Who are the killers in this story? What is the significance of this fact?

There are two sets. It’s the American or British airmen who dropped the bombs that destroyed Heaven Street and killed Hans, Rosa, Rudy, and the others. While the Nazis threatened the inhabitants of Heaven Street and in the background were doing their atrocities in the Holocaust, it was the Allies who killed the people who Liesel loved. The significance of this fact is that in an all-out war, like WWII, hundreds of thousands civilians are killed, including people like the characters in this story.

3. What does this story tell us about death? (Death in this question does not include the character of the narrator in this story.)

Death, especially death in war, is random and senseless. Students might also note that death is a process (verb) and a result (noun).

4. Some commentators say that the strongest literary element in this story is characterization and that plot is secondary. Describe why they say this and why you agree or disagree.

This is clearly a character-driven story. The characterizations are strong. The climax, the Allied bombing of Himmel Street has nothing to do with the actions of any of the characters or the conflicts described in the story. For the characters and the issues they have been dealing with, the resolution comes, as it were, out of the blue.

5. Today, the bombing of a street like Himmel Street would probably be considered a war crime. Why is that? What is the implication of your answer to the use of atomic weapons?

There is no one correct answer to this question. Good responses will discuss the advancing civilization of the world, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” (MLK). A good discussion will cover the following areas. Some would say that it depends upon the type of war. Civilian casualties should be very restricted in limited wars, such as the recent wars fought by the U.S. and its allies. A strong response will note the availability of cruise missiles which can guide bombs to targets as small as a specific building. Atomic bombs are indiscriminate weapons that destroy entire cities. Could atomic weapons ever be used in a limited war? What if Iran develops a nuclear weapon and bombs Tel Aviv? Would the Israelis or the U.S. be justified in dropping a nuclear bomb on Tehran? What about all the fabulous innocent people living in Tehran?

See TWM’s unit on Mass Casualties and Making Decisions About War which provides an in-depth analysis of the decision to launch a nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Students who have read The Book Thief or who have seen the movie, might be interested in this unit.

Additional discussion questions on some of the literary/cinematic devices relating to the novel or the movie.

6. A commentator wrote that, “Without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable, hard-won hope.” What is that hope?

The hope is that people can survive terrible circumstances and still have lives filled with love, as Liesel did. All the loving people in the novel embody that hope: Hans, Rosa, Rudy, the Mayor’s wife, and especially Liesel. Liesel becomes someone so alive and giving that even Death cannot help but love her and while Death may not be obsessed with them Hans, Rosa, and Rudy are memorable characters that all human readers/moviegoers will come to love. The quote is from Fighting for Their Lives by John Green, New York Times, May 14, 2006

7. Liesel is an admirable character, but there is something she did in this story that she will regret all her life. What was it and how does it relate to a major theme of the story?

Liesel will regret not allowing Rudy to kiss her; in other words, not allowing Rudy to express how much he loved her. And also not being able to tell him how much she loved him. The theme that this relates to is the positive power of love (Item C in the suggested response to question #1 in the Learning Guide). Of course, Liesel’s refusal was innocent and totally appropriate for a girl her age. It was only in light of Rudy’s unexpected and sudden death that it could be seen as an error.

8. The following two questions should be asked together:

A. What is the reason for Liesel’s brother, Hans, Rosa, and Rudy to die and for Liesel and Max to live?

There is no reason. Death is random.

B. This story suggests how to respond to the random dreadfulness of death. What does it tell us?

The only way to respond to the random dreadfulness of death is through a commitment to life and with love for the living.

9. In reality, is death-haunted by human beings? Why is the personification of death, the narrator of this story haunted by humans?

Death (the verb) is a process. Death the noun is a result. (p. 6). In reality, death has no feelings. However, as a literary device, as a narrator, “Death” must care about humans. Otherwise, the story would be flat and boring. But most importantly, Death is haunted by human beings because a theme of the book is that despite dreadfulness and inevitability of death, the human spirit triumphs over all; and in fact, as human beings, we need to believe that and we should believe it.

10. Several characters in the story suffer from survivor’s guilt in this story. What is survivor’s guilt and how do the characters deal with it.

Survivor’s guilt can occur when a person survives a traumatic event and others do not. Survivors will sometimes feel guilty as if they have done something wrong, when, in fact, they were just lucky or smart. Hans suffers from survivor’s guilt because he was the only person in his unit to survive an engagement. Hans, a man who understands the importance of love, takes his guilt and uses it to learn to play the accordion and to help Max. The son of Ms. Hostapfel commits suicide. Max feels guilty that he was happy to be alive when he left his family, most of whom undoubtedly were murdered by the Nazis. We are not really told how he deals with that but Death comments that he felt it all his life.

11. The novel contains the following passage at page 65:

Some crunched numbers. — Since 1933, ninety percent of Germans showed unflinching support for Adolf Hitler. That leaves ten percent who didn’t. Hans Hubermann belonged to the ten percent.

Consider this passage in relation to the one below from a novel called The Magus by John Fowles.

The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed. I suppose one could say that Hitler didn’t betray his self. . . . But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good. (The Magus, p. 132)

As a member of a society, what do these passages mean to you? Do you think that Hans did enough to resist Hitler?

There is evil in every society. These passages tell us that we cannot stand idly by and allow our society to do terrible things. We must do what we can to enhance the good and restrain the evil. There is no good response to the question of whether Hans did enough to resist Hitler. A few Germans did resist the Nazis and paid for their actions with their lives. See The White Rose.

Personification of the All-Seeing Narrator

12. What was the benefit to the story that the narrator was a personification of death?

There are many; here are some examples. Students will probably come up with their own. (a) Using Death as a narrator allows the author/filmmakers and the reader/viewer to look at the lives and deaths of the characters from a vantage point that is something other than just being human. Since one of the important themes of the story is a celebration of the human spirit and of the human capacity for love and survival even through horrific circumstances, having Death be in awe of that spirit, haunted by humans as he says in the last words of the book and the film, allows the author to celebrate the human condition without appearing overly proud. In addition, the events of the story are so terrible that Death, as a non-human (a “result” as he says) can discuss them dispassionately, whereas a human observer would not be able to do this. Death’s lack of human feeling allows the reader/viewer to supply the emotion and in doing so, the reader/viewer can feel the emotion more exquisitely. (b) Having Death as a narrator is also a clear foreshadowing that important characters will die and allows explicit foreshadowing in the novel and the film. (c) Using Death as the narrator provides the opportunity for one of the chief ironies of the story, i.e., that death, which will eventually conquer all people and deprive them of their humanity, is obsessed with humanity especially by the character and strength of a little girl. (d) Using Death as a narrator immediately elevates the story to one that involves important questions of the human condition. (e) Having Death as the Narrator allows for numerous interesting ideas to be presented. Two examples are set out below:

One small fact: you are going to die. Despite every effort, no one lives forever. Sorry to be such a spoiler. My advice is when the time comes, don’t panic. It doesn’t seem to help.

It’s always been the same. The excitement and rush to war. I met so many young men over the years who have thought they were running at their enemy, when the truth was, they were running to me.

13. Death has different reactions to the souls of the people that it takes in the story. What do those reactions have in common?

Death’s reaction is very human and life-affirming. This is the essence of personification and one of the central ironies of the story.

14. In this story, death is personified, that is, it is given human characteristics despite the fact that it is not human; it’s a process (as a verb) or a result (as a noun). What is your reaction to that character?

There is no one correct answer. Some may say that they feared him. Others may say that he was wise. Some may say that he was cynical. Others may refer to his sense of humor. Still others may say that he was ludicrous.

15. Is the personification of Death as presented in this story a helpful concept?

There is no one correct answer. A good discussion will include the idea that it is not helpful in life because it doesn’t matter to Liesel or to us that death is haunted by humans. Death is cold, hard and the taking of our humanity. Another good point is that it is an overly romantic concept. Others may say that it gives them a sense of comfort even though it is a fantasy. [Teachers can further ask, “Why is that?” The answer is that we are human beings and we are afraid of death. The idea that death takes account of our actions is part of the idea that the universe takes account of our actions and that is comforting; since we are all going to die.]

16. Why are Liesel and her wonderful book spared?

Chance, only chance.

17. Identify two symbols in this story.

Each of these symbols can be described in different ways. They include:

• Heaven Street: This is the name of the street on which the major characters live. It is the street where Liesel found love and happiness, where she learned to read, and where she started writing. With all the other problems that Heaven Street had, at least it gave her that and that was her source of happiness, i.e., it was heaven.
• Books, Words, Reading: There are a number of ways to describe this. Books and the ability to read are the means to salvation, literally, Liesel is saved because she went to the basement the night of the bombing to write her memoirs. Liesel is able to calm the people in the bomb shelter by using words: telling them a story or reading from a book. In the novel she does the same for Frau Holtzapfel. Death, who is haunted by humans, reads Liesel’s memoirs many times, i.e., life asserts itself over death through Liesel’s book, as Markus Zusak does through his book. Max is saved by his use of Mein Kampf to divert suspicion when he is traveling. Hans is saved when he is chosen to write some letters rather than go into the battle in which his platoon is decimated. Writing is a bell-weather for relationships. When Liesel’s mother doesn’t write back, she knows she’s dead. Liesel’s relationship with Frau Hermann, the Mayor’s wife, is based on books and it is Frau Hermann who gives Liesel a home after the bombing. Michael Holtzapfel explains his decision to take his own life in writing. However, books are also the means by which Hitler seduced the German people, as symbolized by the book Mein Kampf. So, it could be said that books, words and reading symbolize power for good or for evil.
• The Accordion: The accordion represents the best of Hans. It was given to him by Erik Vandenberg, the man who saved his life. Playing the accordion is a source of joy and comfort for Hans and for Hans’ audience. Rosa holds it to her breast and sleeps with it when Hans is away. It is a constant reminder and reaffirmation of his promise to Max’ father; complying with that promise, at great risk to himself and his family, ennobles Hans. One of Max’s first words to Hans when he shows up at the Hubermann’s door is, “Do you still play the accordion?” When Hans returns from military duty, somewhat broken after his experiences, it is difficult for him to play.
• Bread: In this story, bread is the staff of life, its archetypical meaning. However, when the Hans (in the novel) and the children (in the movie) give it to starving Jews it is more than that. It is respect and honor; an acknowledgment that they are human beings worthy of respect. This is why in the novel the old man kneels before Hans as, in the Zusak family story, the old man kneeled before the boy who gave him bread.
• The Snow Ball Fight and the Snow Man: These are a symbol for life. We have to do it and in the end it all melts away. Hopefully, we’ll have a great time in the process like the Hubermanns, Liesel and Max.
• The Grave Digger’s Handbook is the first book that Liesel uses to learn to read. Since reading is life for Liesel the name of her first book is an ironic symbol for that fact.
• The pages of Hitler’s Mein Kampf are whitewashed to become the pages of Liesel’s book.

18. List some instances of situational in the story.

Note to teachers: This story has ironic elements but the irony is not nearly so pervasive as the irony in other stories, such as Cyrano de Bergerac . A non-exhaustive list of ironies is set out below.

• Death being haunted by life, “usually, people are haunted by the fear of death;”
• Death has typical affectionate human reactions to each of the people whose souls he gathers; Death, however, is an impersonal process which results in the loss of human life and all that is human;
• Max, the Jew, uses a volume of Mein Kampf as a shield to avoid detections as he travels incognito in Germany;
• It is the pages of Mein Kampf, whitewashed by Max, that are the pages that Liesel uses to write her book;
• Rudy, the blue-eye, blond haired, perfect Aryan type is obsessed by Jesse Owens, a black athlete;
• Liesel who starts out not knowing how to read is saved by writing;
• Liesel is not supposed to be in the basement – she’s supposed to be upstairs in bed; but she lives because she’s in the basement;
• Liesel survives in a basement that was deemed too shallow to be an adequate shelter; Max also survives in that basement but not from an air raid;
• Hans’ life was saved when his friend Erik Vandenberg nominated him to stay back from the engagement and write letters for an officer; however, Hans wasn’t so good at reading and writing himself (obviously Mr. Vandenberg had more in mind than a good person to write letters when he suggested that his friend Hans stay back from the engagement — one would like to think that Mr. Vandenberg knew that Max was a good and loving soul who would do good in the world);
• The Mayor, the leader of the book burners, has a library full of books.
• The beginning of Liesel’s salvation is through The Grave Digger’s Handbook;
• The name of the first book that Liesel reads, the book on which she first learns to read, is The Grave Digger’s Handbook; since, for Liesel, reading is life, it is ironic that the book that Liesel uses to learn how to live is called The Grave Digger’s Handbook.

Other Literary Elements – Miscellaneous Questions [for students reading the book]

19. In the novel, Death is obsessed with color. Why does this make sense?

Death is the absence of color (bleached bones, entropy, etc.), and the way that a personification of death that was fascinated with life would react is that it would be attracted to color.

20. Max told Liesel that, “Memory is the scribe of the soul.” What figure of speech is this. What was Max trying to get at.

This is metaphor, a description enhanced by the comparison of unlike things. It is a beautiful thought. It is hard to say exactly what it means: one possibility is that our souls are made of memories, or that memory is the way that our souls work.

21. There are many instances of foreshadowing in this book. How does this author use foreshadowing?

He uses it to keep interest. The foreshadowing is always vague in many respects, and we want to read on to see how it turns out. Foreshadowing occurs on at least the following pages. 30, 33 & 34,55, 71, 80, 127, 128.

22. The voice of this story has two interesting aspects. One is that it is told from the standpoint of people who were the enemy in WWII, who we bombed, and who we tried to kill. The second is that it is told from the perspective of death. How does this dually foreign point of view add to the story?

The first is that it teaches one of the great themes of the story, which is that even among a hated and feared enemy there are people of character. The events of the story are too fraught with emotion to tell it from form Liesel’s point of view, or that of Hans, Rosa, or Rudy or any human character. The distance of death from human concerns allows the author/filmmakers to tell the story and then let the human reader/audience feel the emotions themselves. Also, having death as a narrator provides wonderful opportunities for thematic comment, imagery, etc.

See Discussion Questions for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction .

FAMILIES IN CRISIS

1. Liesel’s mother was ill and could not take care of her children. What was the best thing she could do for them? Suggested Response: If there were no relatives suitable to place them with, it would be to place them with foster parents. See page 32, first three paragraphs. Teachers should consider reading this passage to the class.

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS (CHARACTER COUNTS)

Responsibility.

(Do what you are supposed to do; Persevere: keep on trying!; Always do your best; Use self-control; Be self-disciplined; Think before you act — consider the consequences; Be accountable for your choices)

1. What is the key act showing responsibility in this story?

It is Hans’ act of hiding Max, even though it put his life and that of his family in danger.

2. Was it right for Hans to put the lives of his wife and his foster daughter in danger just to fulfill his responsibility to Eric Vandenberg’s son?

The key to answering this question is that hiding Max was the right thing to do for other reasons, such as being caring and resisting injustice.

(Be kind; Be compassionate and show you care; Express gratitude; Forgive others; Help people in need)

Numerous questions set out above and in the Learning Guide relate to the ethical precept of caring.

See also Discussion Questions which Explore Ethical Issues Raised by Any Film .

ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

For ela classes.

Most of the discussion questions in this Guide can serve as a writing prompt. Additional assignments include:

1. Write a letter from Liesel to the bombardier on the plane that dropped the bombs that destroyed Himmel Street. In the letter, she should tell him what his bombs did to her community. She should discuss whether she can forgive him. She should discuss the German bombing of civilian targets in England.

2. Write a one-paragraph description of the following characters in this movie: Liesel, Hans, Rosa, and Rudy.

3. Write an essay comparing The Book Thief with a story that contains both strong characterizations and a resolution deriving from the conflicts faced by the characters (e.g. Hamlet) or with a story dominated by plot such as (e.g., Romeo and Juliet).

For Social Studies Classes

4. Research and write a paper about the use of aerial bombing from World War II to the drones used in modern warfare. Include a section on the ethics of such bombing.

5. Certain incidents that develop Liesel’s character and give it more maturity and depth were eliminated from the movie; undoubtedly this was done because of time constraints. Write an essay comparing the development of Liesel’s character in the novel and in the movie. [Strong essays will cite the elimination of the food stealing sub-plot, the reading to Mrs. Holtzapfel, and the suicide of Mrs. Half-staff’s son. Strong essays will also describe the complications of the relationship between Liesel and the Mayor’s wife that are included in the novel but not the film.]

6. An episode contained in the novel but deleted from the movie involves Hans’ relationship with his son. Find the references to Hans’ son in the book and describe the development of Hans’ character that is missing from the film.

7. Max asks Liesel, “Make the words yours. If your eyes could speak… what would they say? Find a beautiful scene or object, or an ugly one. Write a paragraph describing what your eyes say about it.

8. After his mother insisted that Max go off with his friend who had false papers for him, Max felt that “awful, light-headed relief . . . that he would live.” In the book, the feeling is described in this way, “the relief struggled inside him like an obscenity. It was something he didn’t want to feel, but nonetheless, he felt it with such gusto it made him want to throw up. How could he? How could he? But he did.” Write the letter that Max would send to Liesel in which he described these feelings to her. Part of the letter should refer to the circumstances which caused him to need to write the letter to Liesel.

See also Additional Assignments for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction and TWM’s guide to Lesson Plans Using Film Adaptations of Novels, Short Stories or Plays .

CCSS ANCHOR STANDARDS

Multimedia:

Anchor Standard #7 for Reading (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). (The three Anchor Standards read: “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media, including visually and quantitatively as well as in words.”) CCSS pp. 35 & 60. See also Anchor Standard # 2 for ELA Speaking and Listening, CCSS pg. 48.

Anchor Standards #s 1, 2, 7 and 8 for Reading and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 35 & 60.

Anchor Standards #s 1 – 5 and 7- 10 for Writing and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 41 & 63.

Speaking and Listening:

Anchor Standards #s 1 – 3 (for ELA classes). CCSS pg. 48.

Not all assignments reach all Anchor Standards. Teachers are encouraged to review the specific standards to make sure that over the term all standards are met.

BRIDGES TO READING

This is a marvelous book and everyone should read it.

LINKS TO THE INTERNET

• Shmoop pages on The Book Thief ;
• Fighting for Their Lives Review of the Book in the NY Times, by JOHN GREEN; Published: May 14, 2006;
• The Book Thief Study Guide from GradeSaver;
• CONCEPT ANALYSIS ;
• Interview with Markus Zusak ;
• Ten Questions with Markus Zusak Politics and Prose Bookstore;
• Markus Zusak: The Book Thief film’s biggest hurdle was Death by Michelle Paulli theguardian.com, Tuesday 25 February 2014 03.39 EST ;
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak by Marianne Brace, 9/31/06;
• WWII in Europe/The Blitz from The History Place ;
• Wikipedia Article on The Blitz ;
• Markus Zusak: how I let go of The Book Thief Sydney Morning Herald, January 4, 2014;
• Article on the Hitler Youth Movement at the History Learning Site;
• Instructor Materials – The Book Thief WebQuest – Google Sites ;
• Perth International Arts Festival – The Book Thief Teachers Notes ;
• Wikipedia article on Dachau ;
• Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims from the Jewish Virtual Library;
• Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9–10, 1938 ; article from the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum Website; and
• Wikipedia Article on Jesse Owens .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See Links to the Internet. We also included some of the concepts and question in the “Questions for Discussion” on pages 3 — of the Readers Guide in the First Knopf trade paperback edition September 2007. Specific Citations:

• The 1933 quote from Hitler about Hitler Youth is found on many Internet pages such as Hitler Youth from the History Place accessed October 5, 2014;
• Casualty figures for the Blitz are also generally accepted and found and many websites, including, for example, on Wikipedia Article on the Blitz , accessed October 5, 2014.
• Casualty figures for the German civilian population are also from several websites including Wikipedia article on Strategic bombing during World War II ;

This Learning Guide was written by James Frieden and was published on October 26, 2014.

All page references without a citation are to pages of the First Knopf trade paperback edition September 2007.

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October 17, 2021

13 Lessons to Teach The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

What It’s About? Get full lesson HERE !

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a  heart wrenching novel about the horrors of the Holocaust. The Book Thief is about a young man who barely survives the Holocaust amongst the many who perish in the novel and in history.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: How to Teach It! Vocabulary

I start by passing out a vocabulary sheet in which students have the page number and the vocabulary word. Students are to write a simple synonym for the definition. I like to keep definitions as simple as possible because when you use long definitions there is a low chance of student retention.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: How to Teach It! Journal Responses

Second, I have multiple journal responses that I use throughout the unit that are engaging and assess student comprehension.

• Some of the examples are to write a letter to a character. Tell them how you are similar or different. Tell them something you admire about them and why. This puts the students through the thought process of what empathy is like.
• Another journal response can be to Create a mock interview between yourself and a character. Create interview questions, practice and be prepared to present in front of the class.
• Students can Predict what will happen in the next chapter and craft a chapter from a character’s perspective in first person point of view. Be prepared to share the chapter with your classmates.
• Or, choose a significant incident in the book and write a journal entry from a character’s point-of-view
• You can ask them If you were given the opportunity to ask the author 5 questions what would they be? Write the questions below and explain why you want the answers to these questions.
• To assess setting students can create the setting in a drawing below. Be specific with details.
• Lastly draw a primary character and at least one secondary character in the box below. Be accurate in your drawing.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: How to Teach It!: Reading Comprehension

• Visualize-I ask students to draw a symbol that best represents the book.
• Summarize-Students will summarize the book, a chapter, or a section of the book.
• Clarify-Students are to analyze where they lack an understanding of the book. They are to ask themselves, what do I need to re-read in order to fully comprehend the material?
• Connect-students ask themselves how the material connects to other material in the book and to other texts they have read.
• Respond-Students analyze how the author uses literary devices in the work and why.
• Question-Students are to make a list of questions they have for the author for further understanding.
• : Costa’s Question Cues

Next I have students create a list of high order thinking questions using Costa’s question cues. Some of Costa’s question stems begin with the following:

• Compare/contrast

You can collect these questions and answers and use them for a Socratic Seminar or a Four Corner Discussion. Pass out a list of the questions for students to work on at home. Have students return with their questions and answers. Elect two leaders to lead the discussion. Remain as an observer and allow for a meaningful discussion about the book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Connections

I like to take connections with the book a step deeper because of the importance of engaging the students by connecting them with the material. I have students look up quotes of things that happen in the book that remind them of something from their own lives. They write the quote and begin a connection with something like, “This reminds me of a time that….” Students catalogue the quotes and connections as they read through the book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Purpose of Reading

It is important to note the purpose of reading a text. Students are always asking “what is the point of this?” and there is only a positive outcome if a teacher takes the time to answer this question. Some purpose of reading questions can be:

• What are the characters’ motives or goals?
• What is the conflict?
• What am I visualizing?
• What is the message the author is trying to convey?
• What mood is the author creating?
• What problem is the character facing?
• How is the plot developing the story?
• Why did the author write this story?
• What themes are addressed in this text?
• What is your emotional response to the text?

Through analyzing and discussing the answers to these questions, you can come to a consensus as to what the purpose is of reading a text-even if it’s just for fun! In the case of The Book Thief it brings awareness of the adversities of the Holocaust.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Sentence Starters

The next assignment I have students complete throughout the reading are sentence starters. Sentence starters help students to analyze their own thinking and wonderment. Some examples of sentence starters are:

• I wonder…
• I was surprised that…
• I don’t really understand…
• I was reminded that…

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Exposition Writing

Some practice with writing an exposition can be done by simply using a statement and backing it up with evidence. For example, if we are to look at the statement “Authoritarianism is traumatizing” then the evidence to back it up.

Teach The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Compare/Contrast Characters

Another assignment worthy of a teacher’s attention is to compare contrast characters physical and emotional descriptions. You can utilize a graphic organizer to effectively list information.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Close Reading Questions

It is highly effective to take a close reading passage from the book and have students analyze it by answering a list of carefully crafted sentences. A list of close reading sentences can look like this:

• What does this passage mean to you?
• Why do you think it is important to the text as a whole?
• What confuses you about the passage?
• Why is understanding this passage important to your response to the book as a whole?
• How does the passage connect to other ideas in the book?
• How does the author feeling about the ideas, characters or events they are presenting?
• Do the characters remind you of anyone else in fiction, history, or anyone else in your life?
• What is revealed about the characters you have read in this passage?

The Book Thief: Have Fun With Learning! Roll the Dice Activity

It is crucial that students have some fun while learning. A simple way to create some fun is by creating a “roll the dice” activity sheet. On a sheet of paper create the following activities:

• Paraphrase learned information in one sentence.
• Create a bookmark for today’s learning.
• Write original lyrics to a song that relates to today’s topic.
• Write four what if questions about the topic
• Create vocabulary cards for the five most essential terms
• Write an acrostic poem about the topic
• Write a letter to a family member or friend about the topic
• Create an analogy for today’s topic and an image
• Create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast information
• Summarize what you learned today to three classmates

Have students role dye and whichever number they land on they will complete as a group. If you only have once set of dye, you can roll for the whole class.

A One-Pager Assignment Project

The purpose of the one-pager assignment is to take a close look at the novel and analyze its themes, characters, quotes, etc.

The top half should focus on symbolism and themes using words and images. The bottom half should focus on key characters from the text and how they develop.

You may also use other symbols, drawings and words as you wish.

The border is themes. Students can get creative and maximize their efforts with a one-pager assessment.

Create a Plot Structure Diagram

Create a plot structure diagram using the mountain analogy with the following:

• Rising action
• Falling action

6-Panel StoryBoard

Students can get a little creative and create a six-panel storyboard where they illustrate and write about a scene. They can also do an extension of a paragraph or the book.

Philosophical Chairs Discussion

Philosophical chair discussions are important in that they not only teach students to take a critical look at a topic but they learn how to express their opinions and evidence about the topic effectively. A great philosophical chairs discussion topic for this book is Countries should have helped to stop the Holocaust sooner. Have students choose a side, write about their opinions using evidence from the text and share their work in an articulate manner.

A thorough final assessment can be the essay. For this particular book I would do a literary analysis or if you want to extend the philosophical chairs discussion, you can use the same topic from the philosophical chairs discussion.

However you teach “The Book Thief” you are doing your students a service as it is a book worthy of attention and analysis. Get this full lesson in my TpT. Click HERE for the full lesson. To Read a blog post on March click HERE

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The Book Thief Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer..

• What is the effect of the mystery surrounding Max's life after his reunion with Liesel after the end of the war?
• Why does Liesel refuse to bathe after losing her brother and mother, and then again after losing everybody on Himmel Street?
• We don't know anything about Rosa's past, but what are some possible reasons that she thinks hitting children with wooden spoons is natural? What makes her change?
• Are the characters in The Book Thief believable? Why, or why not?
• How might the story look if it was told from Max's point of view? From Rosa's?
• Do you like Markus Zusak's writing style in this novel? Does it make you want to read his other books? Why or why not?
• What do you think of Death as the narrator? How does this impact the style of the novel? Could the novel have been better from another point of view? Why or why not?
• What questions, if any, does the novel leave unanswered?
• Could Liesel have trusted Rudy with the fact that Max was hiding in her basement? Why or why not? Do you think it hurt his feelings when he learned the truth? Why or why not?

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W hy's T his F unny?

The Book Thief

Markus zusak, everything you need for every book you read..

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Markus Zusak's The Book Thief . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Book Thief: Introduction

The book thief: plot summary, the book thief: detailed summary & analysis, the book thief: themes, the book thief: quotes, the book thief: characters, the book thief: symbols, the book thief: theme wheel, brief biography of markus zusak.

Historical Context of The Book Thief

Other books related to the book thief.

• Full Title: The Book Thief
• When Written: 2002-2005
• Where Written: Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany
• When Published: 2005
• Literary Period: Contemporary Fiction
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Setting: Fictional town of Molching, Germany, 1939-1943
• Climax: The fire-bombing of Molching
• Antagonist: Adolf Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust
• Point of View: First person omniscient, with Death as the narrator

Extra Credit for The Book Thief

Bread. Zusak was inspired to write The Book Thief by a story his mother told him, which involved a boy giving bread to a starving Jew who was being marched to a concentration camp. A Nazi soldier noticed and whipped both the boy and the Jew. This scene is recreated in The Book Thief with Hans Hubermann in the place of the boy.

Rudy. Zusak's favorite character from any of his books is Rudy Steiner, Liesel's best friend.

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The Book Thief Discussion Questions : Pages 62-122

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Book Thief (Zusak) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions 1. Discuss the symbolism of Death as the omniscient narrator of the novel. What are Death’s feelings for each victim? Describe Death’s attempt to resist Liesel. Death states, “I’m always fi nding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both.” (p. 491) What is ugly and beautiful about Liesel, Rosa and Hans Hubermann, Max Vandenburg, Rudy Steiner, and Mrs. Hermann? Why is Death haunted by humans?

2. What is ironic about Liesel’s obsession with stealing books? Discuss other uses of irony in the novel.

3. The Grave Digger’s Handbook is the first book Liesel steals. Why did she take the book? What is signifi cant about the titles of the books she steals? Discuss why she hides The Grave Digger’s Handbook under her mattress. Describe Hans Hubermann’s reaction when he discovers the book. What does the act of book thievery teach Liesel about life and death? Explain Rudy’s reaction when he discovers that Liesel is a book thief. How does stealing books from the mayor’s house lead to a friendship with the mayor’s wife? Explain how Liesel’s own attempt to write a book saves her life.

4. Liesel believes that Hans Hubermann’s eyes show kindness, and from the beginning she feels closer to him than to Rosa Hubermann. How does Hans gain Liesel’s love and trust? Decide whether Liesel is a substitute for Hans’s children, who have strayed from the family. Why is it so difficult for Rosa to demonstrate the same warmth toward Liesel? Discuss how Diesel’s relationship with Rosa changes by the end of the novel.

5. Abandonment is a central theme in the novel. The reader knows that Liesel feels abandoned by her mother and by the death of her brother. How does she equate love with abandonment? At what point does she understand why she was abandoned by her mother? Who else abandons Liesel in the novel? Decide whether she was abandoned by circumstance or by the heart.

6. Guilt is another recurring theme in the novel. Hans Hubermann’s life was spared in France during World War I, and Erik Vandenburg’s life was taken. Explain why Hans feels guilty about Erik’s death. Guilt is a powerful emotion that may cause a person to become unhappy and despondent. Discuss how Hans channels his guilt into helping others. Explain Max Vandenburg’s thought, “Living was living. The price was guilt and shame.” (p. 208) Why does he feel guilt and shame?

7. Compare and contrast the lives of Liesel and Max Vandenburg. How does Max’s life give Liesel purpose? At what point do Liesel and Max become friends? Max gives Liesel a story called “The Standover Man” for her birthday. What is the significance of this story?

8. Death says that Liesel was a girl “with a mountain to climb.” (p. 86) What is her mountain? Who are her climbing partners? What is her greatest obstacle? At what point does she reach the summit of her mountain? Describe her descent. What does she discover at the foot of her mountain?

9. Hans Junior, a Nazi soldier, calls his dad a coward because he doesn’t belong to the Nazi Party. He feels that you are either for Hitler or against him. How does it take courage to oppose Hitler? There isn’t one coward in the Hubermann household. Discuss how they demonstrate courage throughout the novel.

10. Describe Liesel’s friendship with Rudy. How does their friendship change and grow throughout the novel? Death says that Rudy doesn’t offer his friendship “for free.” (p. 51) What does Rudy want from Liesel? Discuss Death’s statement, “The only thing worse than a boy who hates you [is] a boy who loves you.” (p. 52) Why is it diffi cult for Liesel to love Rudy? Discuss why Liesel tells Mr. Steiner that she kissed Rudy’s dead body.

11. How does Zusak use the literary device of foreshadowing to pull the reader into the story?

12. Liesel Meminger lived to be an old woman. Death says that he would like to tell the book thief about beauty and brutality, but those are things that she had lived. How does her life represent beauty in the wake of brutality? Discuss how Zusak’s poetic writing style enhances the beauty of Liesel’s story. ( Questions issued by publisher .) top of page (summary)

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Kellogg authors new book in Barry Baskerville series

At a glance

Dr. Richard Kellogg, professor emeritus of psychology at Alfred State College, has authored his ninth book in a series of mystery stories for children entitled “Barry Baskerville and the Stolen Car.”

Tue, 04/02/2024 - 15:05

As in previous adventures, young Barry admires Sherlock Holmes and has dreams of becoming a famous detective. He wears a deerstalker hat and searches for clues with a magnifying glass. Barry likes to confound his teachers and classmates by barraging them with riddles and logic problems.

In this new mystery, Barry swings into action when someone steals a car belonging to his father. With the help of his bicycle and pet beagle, Barry tracks down the stolen vehicle and assists the Watsonville police in capturing the thief.  The young detective must employ all his powers of observation and deduction to solve the case.

The book, published by Airship 27, is available on Amazon. It is fully illustrated by Gary Kato, a noted Hawaiian artist.

In addition to the Barry Baskerville series, Kellogg has authored three books about the legendary Sherlock Holmes. On top of writing, he reviews books in the science fiction and mystery genres for Paperback Parade and the New York Review of Science Fiction.

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The Story of Jesus

Today's devotional is from The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People (NIV) . © 2011 by Zondervan. Used with permission. All rights reserved. The Bible's title must be included when sharing the above content on social media.

10 noteworthy books for April

Historical fiction, memoirs and fantasy novels are worth your while this month.

Great reads are popping up this month like spring daffodils, including historical fiction about the Roosevelt era and Palm Beach’s high society, stories that explore modern family dynamics in both fiction and memoir form, and a fantastical tale of an impossible voyage.

‘A Short Walk Through a Wide World,’ by Douglas Westerbeke

Aubry Tourvel, the indulged youngest sister in her loving Parisian family, suddenly develops painful convulsions and life-threatening blood loss. It doesn’t take long to work out that relief comes only when she goes somewhere she has never been. With no choice but to leave home and keep moving, spending just days in one place until the bleeding starts again, she quickly learns to navigate a late-19th-century world where she is forever an outsider and perpetually alone. Sharing a shelf with philosophical adventure novels like “ The Midnight Library ” and “ The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue ,” Westerbeke’s debut thoughtfully explores the effects of being forced to live only in the present. (Avid Reader, April 2)

‘The Mango Tree: A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony,’ by Annabelle Tometich

As a journalist, Tometich knew there would be headlines when her mother was arrested for using a pellet gun to shoot out the car window of a mango thief. She was still surprised, though, by how harshly people judged her Filipina immigrant mother based on skin color alone. The moment is an entry point for Tometich to revisit growing up in a mixed-race household and desperately longing to appear “normal.” The goal of her turbulent formative years was to go unnoticed, whether it was hiding in her room while her parents were scream-fighting or disappearing in the back seat of her best friend’s car as a rotating cast of popular kids sat up front. In seeking to understand the complexity of her mother’s life, Tometich reveals the difficulties that many immigrants and multiracial families face as they try to find a way to belong. (Little, Brown, April 2)

‘American Daughters,’ by Piper Huguley

Huguley’s engaging historical novel reimagines the then-taboo interracial friendship — noted in a 1978 Washington Post obituary — between Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice and Booker T. Washington’s daughter, Portia. These children of American luminaries, who are smart and savvy characters in their own right, share an uncommon connection. As their friendship flourishes, the intriguing women encourage each other through both political and personal tumult. (William Morrow, April 2)

‘Sociopath: A Memoir,’ by Patric Gagne

While earning a doctorate in clinical psychology, Gagne wrote a dissertation examining the relationship between sociopathy and anxiety, a subject with which she was intimately familiar as a sociopath herself. From childhood, she was at a loss to explain why people were uncomfortable around her; she only knew she didn’t understand emotions like fear, guilt or empathy. The inner drive to experience such feelings led her down a path that included lies, criminal behavior and violence. Her studies gave her a diagnosis but little hope: The consensus among late-20th-century psychologists was that there was no treatment, nor the possibility of a normal life. Yet after years of study and therapy, plus the encouragement of supportive family and friends, she shares an inspiring story — of building a life filled with love and meaning — while upending the prevailing narrative of sociopaths as monsters. (Simon & Schuster, April 2)

‘A Sweet Sting of Salt,’ by Rose Sutherland

Jean is a midwife in an 1830s Canadian coastal village when a mysterious woman shows up during a storm, uncommunicative and in labor. After Jean assists with the birth, her neighbor Tobias arrives, explaining that the woman is his Gaelic wife, Muirin, who doesn’t speak at all. During the following week, Jean stays with the new mother, secretly teaching her English while becoming suspicious of Tobias’s intentions. When their friendship turns into something deeper, Jean plans an escape, but she fears that her actions may be putting Muirin and her baby in more danger. Sutherland’s atmospheric, feminist retelling of the selkie wife folk tale is a mesmerizing debut. (Dell, April 9)

‘The House of Broken Bricks,’ by Fiona Williams

Tess moved from her Jamaican community in London to the English countryside, where her husband, Richard, grew up, to raise their twin boys — Max, who presents as White, and Sonny, who presents as Black — in a place where they could muck about in nature. Struggling to find happiness after a great loss, Tess ignores racial slights and devotes herself to cooking Caribbean food, while Richard immerses himself in his winter garden, avoiding difficult conversations. Max can talk only with Sonny about his feelings, although everyone can sense the family is suffering. Like Richard’s plants, only the hardiest of people can endure a desolate winter, but spring’s warmth and light might bring what the family needs for healing and growth. (Henry Holt, April 9)

‘A Better World,’ by Sarah Langan

Langan’s satirical observations shine in this dystopian thriller set in a wealthy enclave where something sinister lurks under a glittery surface. After climate devastation fueled chaos, the only safe places to live are guarded company towns like Plymouth Valley, where the Farmer-Bowens hope to be accepted as residents. An underpaid Environmental Protection Agency employee, Russell has just gotten a one-year trial job offer that could save his family from financial ruin and reverse their deteriorating health issues. Linda gives up her job as a doctor, and they relocate to a three-story colonial and send their two teens to the neighborhood’s blue-ribbon school. Valley residents are tightknit, though, and social breakthrough is difficult until Linda accepts a job offer at a clinic supported by local power brokers. The family’s new stature opens doors but also prompts questions about how far Valley natives might go to justify their wealth and isolation. (Atria, April 9)

‘The Limits,’ by Nell Freudenberger

As covid sweeps the globe, Pia’s mother sends the 15-year-old to New York City to live with her cardiologist father, David, and his new young wife, Kate, a teacher. To protect Pia and newly pregnant Kate from covid exposure, David takes an apartment near the hospital where he works, leaving his daughter to make sense of the upheaval brought by her parents’ divorce. Meanwhile, Kate struggles to connect with a teenager — and questions her own ability to raise a child — while leading online classes for high-schoolers who are facing their own family dramas. Freudenberger ably captures the sense of uncertainty and displacement during the height of the pandemic, matching the inner confusion of major life changes with the outer turmoil of a world in crisis. (Knopf, April 9)

‘The Beautiful People,’ by Michelle Gable

Fluffy and fun, Gable’s novel takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the lives of Palm Beach jet-setters through the eyes of fictional former debutante Margo Hightower. Desperate for money after a broken engagement and a family scandal, Margo takes a job as an assistant to photographer Slim Aarons and is thrust into the world of uber-wealthy scions with names like Vanderbilt, Kennedy and Rousseau. As a friendship develops with heiress and up-and-coming fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer and her seemingly devoted husband, Peter, the divide between work and play starts to blur. When lines are crossed and secrets are revealed, Margo must rely on her skills to forge a path for her future. (Graydon House, April 16)

‘Honey,’ by Victor Lodato

Even at her age — “eighty plus a dash of salt” — Honey Fasinga still does herself up before leaving the house, donning one of a number of outfits from years ago that still fit her: the green silk custom creation with marigold cuffs; a Gucci day dress with ribbon trim; a militantly angular Vivienne Westwood suit. Half a century earlier, Honey fled the world of organized crime to settle in Los Angeles, where she created a fashionable, art-filled life. Honey has always told herself she was different from her now-deceased parents and brother and is convinced she has moved past old grievances. But as she returns home and is faced with a seemingly drug-addled grandnephew, old friends turned enemies and a carjacking to boot, she’s no longer sure whether she is looking for absolution or reprisal. Lodato skillfully brings to life a haunting and irresistible character who is as complex as she is charming. (Harper, April 16)

More from Book World

Love everything about books? Make sure to subscribe to our Book Club newsletter , where Ron Charles guides you through the literary news of the week.

Best books of 2023: See our picks for the 10 best books of 2023 or dive into the staff picks that Book World writers and editors treasured in 2023. Check out the complete lists of 50 notable works for fiction and the top 50 nonfiction books of last year.

Find your favorite genre: Three new memoirs tell stories of struggle and resilience, while five recent historical novels offer a window into other times. Audiobooks more your thing? We’ve got you covered there, too . If you’re looking for what’s new, we have a list of our most anticipated books of 2024 . And here are 10 noteworthy new titles that you might want to consider picking up this April.

Still need more reading inspiration? Super readers share their tips on how to finish more books . Or let poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib explain why he stays in Ohio . You can also check out reviews of the latest in fiction and nonfiction .

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The Book Thief Lesson Plan

Discussion of thought questions, why does death call itself a "result" a result of what.

Death laments the warlike ways of humanity, as seen in the pilot's death and bombing raid that are foreshadowed. For Death, the "perpetual survivors" are particularly wrenching, as they are both victims and counterexamples to human violence and cause Death to question the "worth" of humanity

What is ironic about the name of the Hubermanns' street in Molching?

The name " Himmel " or "Heaven" reminds Liesel of her brother's death -- he too would have been at Himmel Street had he not died, instead he ends up in the afterlife. For traumatized Liesel, there is nothing initially "heavenly" about being here....

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The Book Thief Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Book Thief is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What Death mean when he says “one wild card was yet to be played.” And what is the wild card???

Death means that If anyone finds out a Jew is at Liesel's house, her parents could get taken away.Wild Card in this context means: a person or thing whose influence is unpredictable or whose qualities are uncertain.

What idea does Hans have after he discovers Liesel’a new book? Why do you think he does this?

When Hans discovers that Liesel doesn't know how to read, he begins teaching her the alphabet, and together they make their way through the book Liesel stole from the gravedigger.

What is Leisel's age?

In the beginning of the story Liesel is nine-year-old. By the time the story concludes, she is an old woman.

Study Guide for The Book Thief

The Book Thief study guide contains a biography of Markus Zusak, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Book Thief
• The Book Thief Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Book Thief

The Book Thief essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

• Liesel's Emotional Journey Through the Book Thief
• Zusak's Death Breaks the Mould
• Guilt in The Book Thief
• The Toil of Good and Evil: Multi-Faceted Kindness in The Book Thief
• Stealing the Narrative: The Irony of Reading in The Book Thief

Lesson Plan for The Book Thief

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Book Thief
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Book Thief Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Book Thief

• Introduction
• Recognition

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Trump’s Newest Venture? A $60 Bible.

His Bible sales pitch comes as he appears to be confronting a significant financial squeeze, with his legal fees growing while he fights a number of criminal cases and lawsuits.

• Share full article

By Michael Gold and Maggie Haberman

• March 26, 2024

Before he turned to politics, former President Donald J. Trump lent his star power and celebrity endorsement to a slew of consumer products — steaks, vodka and even for-profit education, to name just a few.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, added a new item to the list: a $60 Bible.

Days before Easter, Mr. Trump posted a video on his social media platform in which he encouraged his supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible,” named after the ballad by the country singer Lee Greenwood, which Mr. Trump plays as he takes the stage at his rallies.

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Michael Gold is a political correspondent for The Times covering the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and other candidates in the 2024 presidential elections. More about Michael Gold

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman

Our Coverage of the 2024 Elections

Presidential Race

Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to keep voters’ attention on the border as President Biden and Democrats grow more optimistic about their ability to center the campaign on abortion after a pair of court rulings out of Florida.

Trump called for Israel to “finish up” its war in Gaza , urging an end to the conflict with no insistence on freeing Israeli hostages first, alarming conservatives.

Trump, who ends many of his rallies with a churchlike ritual, has infused his movement with Christianity .

Other Key Races

Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, abruptly ended her bid for U.S. Senate, a campaign flop that reflected intense national frustration with politics as usual .

Kari Lake, a Trump acolyte running for Senate in Arizona, is struggling to walk away from the controversial positions  that have turned off independents and alienated establishment Republicans.

Ohio will almost certainly go for Trump this November. Senator Sherrod Brown, the last Democrat holding statewide office, will need to defy the gravity of the presidential contest  to win a fourth term.