Michael L. Printz Award Essays

  • Power Of Words, And Hope In The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Book Thief Group Essay The fascination themes of desperation, unity, power of words, and hope are shown in various ways in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Firstly, the fascinating theme of desperation is shown in the text in several interesting ways. First of all, it is shown when Max is forced to leave his family behind on his journey to find Hans Hubermann. Secondly, the theme of desperation is shown through Liesel when Max is sick. She is desperate for him to wake up; we can see this through

  • How To Escape The Labyrinth In Looking For Alaska

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia...You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present” (Green 54). The main character in John Green’s Looking for Alaska, Miles Halter, is tired of his boring life at home, which leads him to his new boarding school. Here he meets Chip and Alaska Young, who show him the rebellious

  • The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

    1753 Words  | 4 Pages

    The diversity of people and their feelings and opinions are what creates a well formed, civilized society. Through emotions that people pertain and the unconditional risks that they take, it is what identifies them to be a part of society. Markus Zusak uses Death’s point of view, symbolism, and characterization in The Book Thief to convey that people’s feelings and beliefs during the Nazi’s era are what ultimately reflects its society which in turn allows them to uphold their beliefs against the

  • The Book Thief Essay

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Intro Of all of the MVS Core values represented in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, I decided to focus on Kindness. I think that the kindness demonstrated by the characters throughout the story contrasts greatly with the hatefulness and death that was happening in Nazi Germany at the time. Finding kindness from unexpected sources in the middle of war and destruction was how the main characters survived and got through the hardest times. I think showing kindness during that time also became a way

  • How Is Imagery Used In The Book Thief

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jorge Estrada English Section 3 Option 1 3/21/2018 The Book Thief , is a fictional novel by Markus Zusak that takes place in Molching, Germany during the Holocaust. The book is narrated by death and the author uses the bold face technique to foreshadow what is going to come in the near future. This is a great way to include messages that suggest later occurrences , and to use certain words to symbolize a big theme or how a character feels. Death also uses colors to represent how

  • Destruction In The Book Thief

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to his brother’s death while fighting alongside him in the war, Michael becomes emotionally devastated, and as a result, experiences survivor’s guilt, leading to his suicide. Although this letter is not from Death’s perspective, it still highlights an example of how physical destruction caused by humans can lead to emotional

  • How Is Language Used In The Book Thief

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Book Thief by Markus Zusak demonstrates that words and language have immense power. Words can be used in a negative or positive way. Hitler possesses the power of words; he used words to spread propaganda in a fallacious way which led to a deleterious impact to human beings. There are a few different themes in the novel; some of the themes are war, suffering, criminality and the most important one is the power of words. Beauty and brutality co-exist in the characters, revealing the baffling

  • The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, there were countless examples that showed the author using a poetic writing style to describe the story of Liesel Meminger. The remarkable use of Death as the narrator intrigued me as a reader due to the fact that the story was about the holocaust. I loved the frequent use of foreshadowing; the bold type drew attention and would almost act as a spoiler in the story. This made me feel as if I was watching a black and white movie; it was both unsetting and unsentimental

  • Brief Summary Of 'Looking For Alaska'

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    Exposition- Looking for Alaska is about a boy named Miles Halter, a somewhat introverted kid who is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his boring life at home. He leaves and begins his first year as a junior at Culver Creek boarding school. He leaves everything behind in hopes of finding what the poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps”. Chip, also known as “The Colonel” is Miles’ new roommate, and nicknames him “Pudge”. The Colonel introduces Pudge to his longtime friend, Alaska

  • Looking For Alaska Analysis

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    coming-of-age story that will appeal to anyone who has ever struggled to escape a labyrinth, whether that labyrinth is grief, guilt, adolescence or high school. This ability to appeal to such a wide audience justifies the novel’s placement on the Printz Award list.

  • Influences On John Green's Life

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Green is a modern day American author that deserves to be considered as a noteworthy author. Throughout John Green’s writings, it can be seen that his life has influenced his writing and is a noteworthy author. Influences from John Green’s life can be seen through his writing. This can be seen through his first published book Looking for Alaska. In Looking for Alaska the main character Miles goes to a boarding school, in Alabama called Culver Creek and is obsessed with the dying words of famous

  • Essay On Leisel's Life In The Book Thief

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    The world we live in is molded by History. Every event since the dawn of time has led up to now, and every event now is leading up to tomorrow and beyond. “The Book Thief “, is a Historical Fiction novel written by Markus Zusak. In the book, a young girl named Liesel is fostered by a poor German couple, and comes of age through the Third Reich and Second World War. During the book many Historical events affected Leisel’s life. The three historical events that most promentaly impacted the course of

  • Book Thief Relationships

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak contains a handful of moments where the reader experiences heart-rending and joyful feelings towards the characters in the story. Each and every character is significant in the novel, and has their own way of showing how they care for one another. The relationships between these characters are what make the story memorable in its own individual way. The characters Hans, Rosa, Liesel, and Max all play remarkable parts in making the book memorable as a whole

  • Hunting For The Right Words Summary

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Hunting for the Right Words” is an article written by Kathryn Gwun-Yeen Lennon and published in 2010 by Alternatives Journal, Canada’s national environmental magazine. Lennon and a group of 24 other students and professors from the University of Manitoba spend 6 weeks in the small arctic community of Pangnirtung, Canada, located on the shore of Cumberland Sound and less than thirty miles South of the Arctic Circle. Pangnirtung has a heavy Inuit influence and by living with them, Lennon has the

  • Looking For Alaska Coming Of Age

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel Looking for Alaska, the author, John Green, highlights the theme of ‘coming of age’ through the character Miles Halter, also known as Pudge. The author also demonstrates to the readers what it means to be present in life and how that applies to coming of age. Green demonstrates Miles Halter’s journey as he crosses the threshold between his old world and what is now becoming his new world in boarding school. As Miles adjusts to his new school, Culver Creek, he is overwhelmed by the

  • Harvey's Personification Of Evil In 'The Thief Of Always'

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Thief of Always, by Clive Barker, is a complex book with many different ideas and characters. It seeks to introduce the notion of time on a relative scale, and to show that wasting one’s moments can lead to one’s life passing by in an instant. In The Thief of Always, a theme has shown itself multiple times, that being Clive Barker developing evil. There are three main examples of the that topic, those being Hood’s personification of evil, Harvey’s potential for evil and Carna’s evil existence

  • I Am The Messenger Essay

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak had me sitting on the edge of me seat and anticipating every scene. Many of Zusak’s books detail characters living beyond limitations set upon them by themselves or by others, and I am the Messenger is no different. In The Book Thief, a foster girl breaks the law of Nazi Germany so that she can continue her passion of reading, and in Underdog, two brothers are seen as dirty boys on the same level of dogs until they are given the chance to show their value and change

  • The Book Thief: Movie Analysis

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    I’ve never read Markus Zusak’s 2006 historical-fiction novel The Book Thief, though I’ve seen and heard many of my friends obsesses over the World War II-set coming of age drama, which spent more than 230 weeks atop The New York Time’s bestseller list. Narrated by Death, Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young German foster child who is taken in by Hans and Rosa Hubermann, a lovingly aged couple who end up hiding a Jew in their basement as the Nazi regime takes control of the country. I was

  • The Book Thief Friendship Theme

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Book Thief Friendship Equals Survival “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art … It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival,” (C.S. Lewis). Oddly enough, The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak is about a young girl Liesel who is placed with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann (SS3). During her time with them she learns how to read, and together they try to survive over the time of the Nazis and World War II (SS2). Affable and

  • Hidden in The Dormroom

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    is sticking out of a hole, it can change your whole perspective of your day. You can totally rock it or you can let it bother you for the next 24 hours. Chip Martin allows his grief to possibly bother him for the rest of his life. In John Green’s award winning young adult novel, “Looking for Alaska” the main character Chip “the Colonel” Martin meets his new roommate, Miles “Pudge” Halter. The Colonel is the best friend of the enticing Alaska Young, which Pudge has fallen deeply in love with. At Culver