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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak; February BOTM
Topic Started: Feb 1 2010, 08:49 PM (6,626 Views)
mary024
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

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 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) 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 significant 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? Debate 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 Liesel’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? Debate 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 signifi cance 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.

ORDER your copy
MBB Review
Edited by mary024, Feb 26 2010, 01:00 PM.
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mary024
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Picked up my copy at the library yesterday :thumbsup
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jnshanna
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Ha! I picked mine up from the library yesterday too!
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Vikks14
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I am getting better with this book club thing! I finished the book well within the actual month! It helped that I already had the book on my shelf, a highly recommended loan from an English teacher friend...I even had her notes about certain themes in the pages, since her class had read it.

Loved the book. I finished it today, so I don't think I have any thoughts in order about it yet. All I can really say is that Liesel and her foster family's story was so beautiful, tragic, courageous, at time humorous, and yes even hopeful.

I can also say that I liked having Death as the narrator, and enjoyed when he inserted his own thoughts. It was a unique, fresh perspective, as well as having the main characters in Nazi Germany actually being the ethnic Germans who lived and struggled within its confines.

I loved all the characters, and was so glad that Death doesn't like mystery and so gave away the ending, so I was prepared for Rudy's fate, which was still sad even though I was ready for it. I was with Death on that one, he was so very undeserving of the way he died. But then, like the Himmel Street inhabitants, many were in that time.

That Rudy, he was definitely one of my favorites.

At times in this book, I found myself getting teary-eyed, and let me tell you, any author who gets me anywhere close to tears must be worth his/her words. I don't cry easily. But when I learned Max would be in that march of Jews to the prison camp, and then when Liesel found him in that march, I was definitely seeing blurred words on my page. And Rudy coming in to save her. Sniff. And then, the bombing of Himmel Street, and Liesel finding her loved ones afterward...I was such a goner. Sigh.

I have a theory about Max and Liesel, and the romantic that is buried deep inside my heart won't let me believe otherwise. They ended up getting married. And here is why I am so confident in my theory:

A passage from when Death came for her, when she was an old woman: "In her final visions, she saw her three children, her grandchildren, her husband, and the long list of lives that merged with hers. Among them, lit like lanterns, were Hans and Rosa Hubermann, her brother, and the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever."

Don't you think Max would have been there, lit like a lantern? Of course he would have! But he was already in her visions: her husband. Ha!

So why didn't Death just spell it out? I think it is because...

1: This book is a young adult story (Liesel was only 14 at the end of the book, while Max was in his 20s; so not PC)
2: This book is not a romance, and shouldn't be ended as such
3: The happiness in the ending was more about discovering that Max survived the prison camp and sought out the girl who helped him, who had used his own words to bolster him, so both characters could rejoice in the others' safety and survival

I will have to look at the discussion questions now, and see if I am ready to answer any of them. In the meantime, I will wait impatiently for more to finish it!

BTW, I love that this story, more than any other than I have ever read, is a story about the power of words.

Edited by Vikks14, Feb 13 2010, 06:28 PM.
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Vikks14
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So I couldn't help myself, and had to do some brief research about my Max Liesel marrying theory.

Apparently the author left it ambiguous so readers can form their own conclusions, though the author himself does not believe they married - I think in part because he has said that Rudy is his favorite character and he had mentioned that if Rudy couldn't have her, then nobody from that particular world should. I also think another part is because this book is based on both his mother's and his father's stories...he had Liesel end up in Australia because his mother ended up in Australia, and I have a feeling his father is not a Jewish man she helped hide in her basement.

But I prefer to take the author at his word and form my own conclusions, which differ from his!
Edited by Vikks14, Feb 13 2010, 07:09 PM.
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mary024
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Care to write a book review for me Vikks? I'll post it on the blog.

I'm not going to read your post yet because I'm only halfway through. :)
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Vikks14
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Sure! How do you want me to sent it? e-mail a Word doc? FB message? Does it matter? BTW I have not received your guidelines or list yet, so please let me know if I made a boo boo.
Edited by Vikks14, Feb 13 2010, 07:10 PM.
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mary024
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Just send it to me in an e-mail or with an attachment. I'll send you an FB message :)
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Vikks14
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Cool!
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burgandykat
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Finished last night. Loved it. I'll have to read over your post Vikks and see what I have to add and/or disagree with.
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mary024
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Here is Vikks REVIEW

I'll also add it to the first post
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mary024
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I finished this the other day.
Oh my - it was so good!

What a pair both Leisel and Rudy made! I LOVED their antics. They brought humor to a very sad story. Rudy, by far, was one of my favorite characters....followed second by, surprisingly, Rosa Hummerman. Something about Rosa just struck a chord with me for some reason. When she let her goodness and love shine, she lit up the pages for me.

Death as a narrator! How very provocative. He sort of brought to mind an old episode of Charmed where one of the sisters encountered Death. He was neither evil or good. He just was. And that unbiased attitude was true nearly throughout the book. He was very matter of fact and timeless. The one surprising moment being his thoughts on Rudy's undeserving death.

And I'm a total sap, so I cried. Oh man did I cry reading this book. Shoot, I think the first time the tears came was when Max took his first full breathe of German air. My gosh, the things we take for granted - the blessings we overlook.

Then of course the March of Jews with Leisel, always looking for Max. And then the day she finally did see him! O.M.G. Even those moments after when Rudy saved her were very well written.

There's a lot I can say about the actual bombing of Himmel Street. But Leisel clinging to her dad's accordian really struck a chord. Those pages were incredible. I don't know how you can make a reader feel someone's state of shock come off the pages, but that's exactly what I felt. I could imagine Leisel, cllinging to her father's accordian, kind of holding on for dear life.

Vikks, I love your interpretation of the ending. I thought of Max as her husband, reading the words. And the 'lit like lanterns' sent light bulbs flashing in my head when I read your review. ITA. They were lit that way because of Max. That's what I envisioned in my ending too!
Edited by mary024, Mar 2 2010, 05:14 PM.
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Vikks14
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Yay! I'm so glad other people have finished the book!

I'm so glad you agree with me Mary, even though the author doesn't! :-) I did a little googling, and it seems there are others out there who believe, or want to believe, that she married Max at some point.

Can't wait to see what you've got to say Kat!
Edited by Vikks14, Mar 3 2010, 10:13 AM.
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jnshanna
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Darn, I really wanted to read this one and you are all making me want to even more. I ran out of time to read it because it was on hold by someone else at the library. I really need to read this book!
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aragorn
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I think I'm going to go back and read this one...added it to my Amazon cart.
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