The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Review

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Pages: 550 pp (paperback, without counting the book club guide, etc. in back)
MSRP: $11.99
Rating: * * * * */5



Wow, two fivers in a row! This book deserves it more than any other book I've read. No wonder it's won so many awards- it's great! I honestly can't say how much I loved this, and how many times I plan to reread it, and how many people I'm going to make read it.
The writing was perfect- it was wise, funny, heartbreaking, and true. I loved the narrator- Mr. Zusak made it Death, and it's not as scary and dark as you might think. He's "haunted by humans," as it says on the last page.
It's about a girl named Liesel Meminger. Her brother dies on a train on the way to their first foster home, and at his burial service is where she gets her first book: The Grave Digger's Guide, I think it's called. That starts a beautiful love with books and words, and soon she's getting them everywhere she can: Nazi book burnings, the mayor's library. Oh, I didn't mention this starts in Germany, 1939, during the Holocaust.
Another place she gets books is two homemade ones, from the Jew that comes to live in the Hubermann's (Rosa and Hans Hubermann being her foster parents) basement later on.
There's also Rudy Steiner, the boy next door with the lemon-colored hair, who becomes her best friend/partner in crime.
This book, I should warn you, is incredibly sad- I was crying like crazy at the end. But it's worth your time and money to read, trust me.
Okay, don't you have a book to go buy and love?
TTFN, Meggin ;)