Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

“The Book Thief”, written by Markus Zusak is focused on a fictional character named Liesel Meminger . Liesel changes drastically over the course of the book. The book starts with a young nine year old Liesel, and ends with her dying of old age. As the book begins, Liesel is a shy girl traveling to meet her new family in the fictional town of Molching, Germany. Liesel is less than excited to meet her new parents, and refused to go into their home. As the book progresses, Liesel warms up to her new dad, Hans Hubermann. She never completely warms up to Han’s wife, Rosa. Liesel enjoys reading books with her father. Rudy, Liesel’s best friend, shows her around and gets her into soccer. Liesel was no longer the shy sad little girl she once was. She

eventually even beats up a kid for teasing her! It takes a while, but eventually Liesel realizes her love for books.

She had stolen a book from her brother’s burial and had read it to many times to count. She begins to steal books from book burnings. One day, someone catches her. A few days later, Rosa made Liesel deliver laundry to the mayor’s wife. The mayor’s wife was the one who saw Liesel. Instead of the beating Liesel expected from her, the mayor’s wife invites Liesel into her private library. Liesel feels like she had just escaped into heaven. There were rows and aisles of fresh, new, and beautiful books. She had never seen such a sight. Liesel went back to the library every week to read more new and beautiful books. This continues for a while. One week, Liesel gets into a fight with the mayor’s wife and doesn’t return. She begins to read to her neighbor Frau Holtzapfel. Meanwhile, Max was captured. The Hubermanns were housing a jew named Max for the past few months. Hans gave a jew a piece of bread, and was worried the Nazis would search their house. Hans made Max leave, in fear the Nazis would find him in their home. Liesel was torn, as she had grown to love Max. At that point, Liesel had grown into a smart independent teenager. One night, Liesel was in the basement writing the book she was

creating. Molching was bombed that night, and all of her loved ones died. Turns out the Hubermanns basement was in fact deep enough to be a bomb shelter. The book flashes forward to the last few moments before Liesel Meminger’s death. Liesel died after a long happy life with the family she created. Liesel went from the small shy kid you could pick on, into a courageous, intelligent, and notorious book thief.