"The Book Thief" - Markus Zusak

Published in 2005 by Alfred A. Knopf

Having Death as the narrator immediately causes some concern, but Zusak sweeps the reader away on a pretty fantastic journey.  Told in short chapters that fit cohesively together to create slightly longer vignettes within the story as a whole, Zusak tells the tale of Leisel, a young girl whose mother must give her to a set of foster parents in order to provide the best possible life for her.  The mother is never heard from again and Leisel grows up alongside many other youths in the time of Hitler's rule.  Instead of focusing on the Jewish perspective, we see a story from the side of a young German girl (although there is a definite bias that Hitler = bad, and befriending Jews at the time = good) a slight reminder that teen novels can occasionally dull the truth to make it easier to accept.

However, it is nice to read a book geared towards young adults that shows not all teen fiction is a vehicle for a middle aged Mormon housewife's wet dreams. Some of it can address controversial topics such as the holocaust or may be more in the vein of economic and sociopolitical issued that could one day be a problem like in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. While many people still view the genre as one that is rife with teenage angst, anxiety, and drama; more and more authors are addressing teens through these stories and giving them real life issues to think about.  The very idea of teen fiction was re-thought with the Harry potter series and I feel that more and more authors are beginning to realize that young adults don't want to be talked down to or ignored.

Quotes:


"Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks. 
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are."


"Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness."


"Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction."

Rating: ****