"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

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            ”The Book Thief" is the story of a young German girl named Liesel Meminger and is narrated in a disjointed, conversational style by Death, though he is not explicitly named during the story. The book begins when Liesel is nine years old and she, her mother, and her brother are en route to a foster home for the two children. The narrator introduces himself as Liesel's brother dies and is in need of processing. It is as she watches her brother's brief, small funeral that Liesel experiences the first of many future book thefts: a gravedigger's assistant drops his copy of "The Gravedigger's Handbook" and, even though she doesn't know how to read, is compelled to take it from where it lies in the snow.

            Books take on an important symbolism throughout the book as signs of defiance. "The Gravedigger's Handbook" is Liesel's refusal to accept her brother's death. "The Shoulder Shrug" is Liesel's first chapter in her small, civil disobedience against the Nazi regime. Even Max Vandenburg, a Jewish street fighter on the run, uses books to oppose the government by using a copy of "Mein Kamph," Adolph Hitler's autobiography, to appear to the police as a loyal German citizens and then later writes over the book, erasing Hitler's words with his own to show his gratitude towards Liesel for keeping his secret and as a means to show the government that even a man with nothing to his name can find ways to spread happiness. Even Liesel's life story serves as a means of defiance, allowing her to cheat death and inadvertently survive a bombing run that manages to kill every other person still living on her street.

This book has won the following awards:
2006 - Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (South East Asia & South Pacific)
2006 - Horn Book Fanfare
2006 - Kirkus Reviews Editor Choice Award
2006 - School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
2006 - Daniel Elliott Peace Award
2006 - Publishers Weekly Best Children Book of the Year
2006 - Booklist Children Editors' Choice
2006 - Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book
2007 - ALA Best Books for Young Adults
2007 - Michael L. Printz Honor Book
2007 - Book Sense Book of the Year
2009 - Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Master List

Zusak, Markus. The BOOK THIEF. NY: Thomson Gale, 2006. Web.