I'm On A Reading Frenzy

"My Heart Is So Tired"

I just finished this book last night staying up later than normal because I just could not put it down. I'm the type of reader who finishes everything they start and, I have to admit when I began this book, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to continue no less finish it. Thank goodness I plowed on because after thirty pages or so, I was hooked. Like many other reviewers have commented, I don't understand why there is a "young" adult sticker right on the front of the book. I think that's poor marketing and, if it wasn't for word of mouth, the average "old" adult reader would not be purchasing this book. Be that as it may, I'm just thankful that so many reviewers here raved about it enough to pique my interest.

There's so much that can be said about this book but the common denominator will always be "words". The main character is a little girl named Liesel (Zusak giving her a pretty name which conflicts with the atmosphere of the book) and right away he adds something to the experience by this word. In a world of war and bombing and fear, we have the word "Liesel" to even things out and give the reader some pleasure every time they say her name. Like the bombs falling on Germany, Liesel is dropped off at the home of the Hubermann's who will become her foster parents. The foster mother Rosa is a big mouth and someone to be feared if it weren't for the fact that she has a huge heart. The foster father Hans is the kind of father every girl should have and it is he who teaches Liesel how to read. Her love of reading and her love of "words" will get her through one of the hardest times in German history.

Showing another side of Nazi Germany, Zusak relates how it wasn't only the Jews who died at the hands of Hitler. There were also so many Germans who died because of this monster. They either had to join the Nazi party or get taken away with the Jews. Those who weren't taken away had to face the bombing of their towns by the Allied forces. At a time when Hitler was destroying people with his words, Liesel found a way of saving them with hers. She learned from Max, a Jew they were hiding in their basement, how to steal these words back from the "Fuhrer" and just how powerful this could be.

To say she was a thief is really stretching it but her obsession with the written word forced her to covet any book she could get her hands on. The goodness of an unexpected woman brings something into Liesel's life that no one else could......a world full of words right at her fingertips.

The most unusual part of the book is the narrator "Death" which might turn the reader off at the onset. But deep into the book, you almost come to love this character and how gently he lifts the souls out of the dying bodies with such care and love. As the saying goes, "Death waits for no man" but this narrator did wait until they were ready to come to him. As you can imagine, this was a very busy time for death himself as war and death are best friends. The narrator (death) explains that war is like the boss at your shoulder wanting more and more until death (the character) becomes very weary. It's almost funny to think of death as a character in this book but you come to forget that he's not real.....or perhaps he's more real than life itself.

I could go on and on about The Book Thief. It's one I won't soon forget and I encourage you to read it no matter what your age. And a note to the publisher....take that stupid "young adult" sticker off the cover!!!