The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2005

ISBN: 978-0375842207 

Summary: Liesel Meminger, age 9, has already stolen her first book by the time she arrives at her foster home outside Munich in 1939 Nazi Germany. She took it from the cemetery where they buried her younger brother on the way to what was supposed to be their new home. Liesel can’t read yet, but when her nightmares about her brother’s death cause her to cry out, her accordion-playing foster father sits with her throughout the night, reading her stolen book aloud to calm her. She slowly learns to read, but books are rare in poverty-stricken Germany, leading her to steal again, this time from a bonfire in honor of the Fuher’s birthday. As Liesel grows she steals more books, helps hide a Jew in the basement, falls in love, and comes full circle by reading aloud in the neighborhood bomb shelter during air raids, calming the living nightmares of those around her.

Critical Analysis: The Book Thief seems like it should be a historic fiction novel, but there’s a twist, Death is the omniscient narrator and his presence as a character places this novel in the low fantasy genre. He is the best character of the novel—witty, descriptive to the point of poetic, and complex. He is fond of putting bold snippets of facts, descriptions, and spoilers centered on the page, just to make sure you see them. Somehow little Liesel captures his attention and he keeps an eye on her whenever he has the opportunity. However, he’s particularly busy collecting souls from the mass carnage that is World War II, so we witness only episodes of her life as she grows to be a teenager. As a narrator Death attempts to be dispassionate, but he never quite manages to be so. 

Liesel is likeable enough, but because of Death’s studied detachment, you never get to really know her. We do know how Death feels about her, his admiration primarily, but also his empathy toward her trials and his sadness about what she still must face. In fact, that is how Death looks at almost all the characters in the novel—whether it’s the incorrigible boy next door, Rudy, Liesel’s foster mother and father, the Hubermann’s, the Jew they hide in the basement, Max, and even the neighbor who regularly spits on the Hubermann’s door. Oddly enough, Death’s vivid descriptions are what makes the characters live. 

Although the subject matter of life touched by war is complex, the plot is not. The conclusion is satisfying and realistic. 

What I found to be most refreshing is Zusak’s treatment of the German people and his clear separation between Germans and the Nazi’s. He allows us to feel sympathy for the German people after decades of studying WWII and falsely classifying Germans and Nazis as one and the same. 

Awards:

 

ALA Notable Book

National Jewish Book Award

Michael L. Printz Honor Book

New York Times #1 Best Seller

Quill Award Nominee

Reviews: 

School Library Journal: “Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax…An extraordinary narrative.” 

USA Today: “The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic.” 

New York Times: “Brilliant and hugely ambitious…The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence.”

 

More Great Books About World War II:

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Baroletti

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Book Thief has been made into a major motion picture. Here are some other movies you may enjoy.

Life is Beautiful. Lionsgate, 1998. PG-13. Directed by and Starring Roberto Benigni. Italian with English Subtitles.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Miramax Lionsgate, 2008. PG-13 Directed by Mark Herman. Starring Asa Butterfield and David Thewlis

Empire of the Sun. Amblin Entertainment, Warner Bros. 1987. PG. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Christian Bale

Questions to Ponder:

What was the first book you remember reading?

Liesel regularly breaks into the mayor’s house in order to steal books. What lengths would you go to in order to read?

Created for Texas Woman’s University course LS 5603.21

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Title: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Author: Simms Taback
Publisher: New York: Scholastic, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-21697-4

Plot Summary: “Joseph had a little overcoat. It was old and worn.” So begins Simms Taback’s adaptation of the traditional Yiddish song “I had a Little Overcoat”. Joseph’s coat is tattered, so Joseph uses his tailoring skills to constantly recreate his favorite apparel into a progressively smaller form. Soon nothing of the coat remains. But that’s not the end! Joseph shows us that something can be made from nothing.

Critical Analysis: Reminiscent of the song lyrics, the rhythmic text and repeated elements make Joseph Had a Little Overcoat a joy to both read aloud and hear. The text’s predictable nature also makes it easier to appreciate the real magic of the book—the illustrations. Taback’s illustrations place the very poor tailor Joseph as part of an Eastern European Jewish community sometime during the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s—the very same culture from which we receive the song.

Using primarily watercolor and collage, Taback’s spreads are packed with details. Younger children will delight in giggling at cartoonish figures and in finding the photographic images in the collage. Older children, including adults, will be intrigued by all the cultural details—a fiddler on the roof here, a Yiddish magazine there.  However, the real excitement occurs with the die-cuts. Overlaying every other illustration with a die-cut creates a jacket from a coat, a button from a handkerchief, and all sorts of items in between.

The moral, “You can always make something out of nothing” is lightly presented, but multi-layered. Creativity and positive attitude will win the day! Joseph Had a Little Overcoat proves it.

Reviews and Awards:

2000 CALDECOTT MEDAL

Barbara Kiefer, chair of the Caldecott Award Committee, commented, "Vibrant rich colors, playful details, and skillfully-placed die cuts contribute to the books raucous merriment that takes this Yiddish folk song far beyond the simple words."

Linda Ludke for School Library Journal writes, “A book bursting at the seams with ingenuity and creative spirit.”

Publishers Weekly states, “With its effective repetition and an abundance of visual humor, this is tailor-made for reading aloud.” 

Music Video:
See Scholastic’s animation of the song using Taback’s illustrations. The score is authentic klezmer music of the Yiddish original.
http://www.simmstaback.com/Simms_Taback_Videos_-_Joseph_Had_a_Little_Overcoat.html

Related Lesson Plans:

http://learningtogive.org/lessons/unit410/lesson2.html

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=%20%20945

In the words of the artist:

            “Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is adapted from a Yiddish folk song and is a good example of yiddishkayt, meaning “Jewish life or Jewish world-view.” It embodies the values and struggles of life in the shtetl—the small villages where Jews lived in Eastern Europe. These were not big-city Jews, but families of farmers and tradesmen of mixed economic classes.”

            ---Excerpt from Taback’s Caldecott Award acceptance speech, see more at http://www.simmstaback.com/Simms_Taback_Caldecott_Medal.html

At the end of the book Taback includes some nice bonus features for the adults and older children. One is a letter explaining why he chose this particular song to illustrate and his feelings regarding the finished product. The other is the sheet music (tune only) to “I had a Little Overcoat”.

A question for you: 

People sometimes see Simms Taback in his illustration of Joseph. What do you think?

(images from pbskids.com and simmstaback.com respectively)

Review created for course 5603.21 at Texas Woman's University