The Book Thief Sparknotes

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a historical fiction novel that takes place during World War II. As the entire book is narrated by Death, the audience is first presented with a little girl named Liesel Meminger, her brother, and her mother on a train to go to the children’s new foster home. While on their way to the new home, Liesel’s brother suddenly passes away, causing the family of now two to have a short memorial and burial of the brother. While exiting the funeral, Liesel noticed that a grave digger had dropped his book, The Grave Digger’s Handbook. Although she did not know how to read, Liesel took the book as one last tangible memory of her brother. This is when Death first gives her the nickname, “the book thief.” Liesel takes her first few weeks at her new home to get adjusted to everyone and their customs, such as Rosa Hubermann, her foster mother, always

She becomes especially close to a boy named Rudy Steiner, who she would go everywhere and do everything with, including stealing food. One night, Liesel jolted awake from her sleep from a nightmare of her late brother. Hans came into her room to comfort her, and she then asked him to teach her how to read. From that night on, Liesel and Hans would have midnight reading sessions, progressively reading The Grave Digger’s Handbook, and learning the words that they did not know together. One day, one of Hans’ late friend’s Jewish sons, Max Vandenburg, comes to the Hubermann house seeking shelter and safety from the Nazi party. As Liesel continues her life with the secret of hiding a Jew in her basement, poverty, thievery, friendships, feuds, and everything in between, she learns the hard tragedies and wonderful joys of life. Liesel would continue to live up to her nickname, “the book thief,” and learned to live through devastations and hard times through the power of