When I first saw this book, it was in the Young Adult section of my local library. I looked past it, but I randomly selected a book, and this was it.
OFFICAL SUMMARY: The book, narrated by death, follows Liesel Meminger, an eleven year old girl in 1939 whose mother gives her and her six year old brother up for fostering. However, on the train journey, her brother dies and she encounters death for the first time. Death has his second encounter Liesel as the gravediggers are burying her brother, Werner, and notes that Liesel steals the younger gravedigger’s handbook, despite her inability to read. Her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Huberman, though Rosa swears alot and Hans smokes alot, are kind, and Hans teaches Liesel as she cannot read. She then starts stealing books from anywhere; a book burning, the mayor’s wife’s library, and realises that Hitler and the Nazi’s power came from words, and learns that words are powerful. Liesel’s best friend, the boy next door Rudy, is cocky but sweet, and constantly asks Liesel for a kiss.
My Review: When I started reading, I was uninterested – I mean death, narrating a book? But as I went on to the book, I actually got really into it! It captures your imagination a few short chapters in. I read the last chapter, and the words and events cause me to nearly cry. Usually I would, I always cry in things but I was on the bus then so I tried not to, which caused my face to go into a v. odd expression. So if you saw a girl with an odd expression on the bus in London today, it was probably me. I will definitely go buy this book, as I’ll probably read it again and again.
Ratings:
Content: 4/5
Characters: 5/5 [Rudy and Liesel are my favourite characters, the ending for them is very sad]
Plot: 5/5
Enjoyability: 4/5 [Well, Death isn't really happy is it!]
TOTAL: 18/20
Buy, Borrow, or Drop? BUY! BUY!
