The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This was a long book, and not an easy read. The language flowed and the story was compelling, but the nature of the book itself and the subject matter forced me to slow down and appreciate every page, even re-reading whole passages. World War II has always been an interest of mine, and this book tackled the whole subject from a very unique point of view. The narrator, Death, tells us the story of a German girl Liesel, who is displaced with foster parents in Germany during WWII to protect her. She learns how to read and discovers the power of books from the raw power of Hitler's Mien Kampf, to the beauty of a well told fairy tale, to the beauty of flames as grown soldiers burn piles of books for the 'dangerous' messages they might be carrying.

The suffering and the fear are palpable throughout this book, and one cannot help but agonize with Leisel and her foster family even as they do their best to stay out of the way of the Nazis. In a WWII unit, I feel that it is important to get many different perspectives on a war, lest students walk away thinking 'Jews suffered.... All Germans are evil". This is not the message I would want students to walk away with, and I feel that unfortunately for most well-constructed Holocaust centered unit plans students do not see the German side of the story, or hear of the Germans who helped or were killed for their disagreements with the Nazi regime. The point of a Holocaust unit is to discourage hate and misunderstanding, not redirect it.

This book had some very interesting devices within it. When Liesel's foster family begins hiding the Jew named Max, Max and Liesel form a fast friendship that leads to Max creating books for Liesel. These books are made from pages of Mien Kampf, which Max painted white and drew on. I found that it broke up the book nicely to have these pages actually within the novel rather than simply described.

I would recommend this book to students, and would most likely also do a unit on this book as well. I feel that this book, despite its young characters, would be better suited for an older class.