Book Thief, The

Zusak Has Created A Work That Deserves The Attention Of Sophisticated Teen And Adult Readers Death Himself Narrates The World War Iiera Story Of Liesel Meminger From The Time She Is Taken At Age Nine To Live In Molching Germany With A Foster Family In A Workingclass Neighborhood Of Tough Kids Acidtongued Mothers And Loving Fathers Who Earn Their Living By The Work Of Their Hands The Child Arrives Having Just Stolen Her First Bookalthough She Has Not Yet Learned How To Readand Her Foster Father Uses It The Gravediggers Handbook To Lull Her To Sleep When Shes Roused By Regular Nightmares About Her Younger Brothers Death Across The Ensuing Years Of The Late 1930S And Into The 1940S Liesel Collects More Stolen Books As Well As A Peculiar Set Of Friends The Boy Rudy The Jewish Refugee Max The Mayors Reclusive Wife Who Has A Whole Library From Which She Allows Liesel To Steal And Especially Her Foster Parents