by Elizabeth Odee
Many people do not expect to find the book that changes their life when they’re as young as the sixth grade. I know I didn’t, until I read “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak.
Just seeing the title, eleven-year-old me thought it was a fun mystery story about someone who stole a book. Well, I was wrong. But I had never been more grateful to be wrong, because it quickly became a book that changed my life and my view on the world.
Told through the perspective of Death personified, the story is about a young German girl, Liesel, and her life during World War II. Not only does she have to deal with growing into a young woman, but she also must deal with the repercussions of the war happening around her.
She finds solace in her friends, family and most importantly her books.
Liesel never learned to read as a young child, so when her adoptive family takes her in and teaches her how to read, she holds on to her words and stories and never lets them go. They become the most important thing in her life.
It is a beautiful story of love, loss, friendship, hope, and risks.
One thing about the novel that impacted me was that it was told through the lens of Death. In the book, Death is painted as a being with feelings, like a person. He becomes this narrator because Death seems to always find Liesel, so he decides to tell her life story.
But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it is a creative way to look at the time period and the story.
Also, this helped me to realize how prevalent death was during the time for such an impressionable young girl.
Liesel was around the same age as us in the sixth grade, and yet she could not escape Death. She could not gasp at it and move on to the next thing like we could. It was a very real part of her life, and that had a deep impact on me.
Another influential part of the novel for me was that it covered some very heavy topics that I had not seen yet in stories.
Of course, the story is set in one of the darkest times of history, but I had not been exposed to a book of that nature. I had always read the lighter fantasy, cult-classic novels such as the “Harry Potter” or “Percy Jackson” series in my earlier years. Then, when I read “The Book Thief,” it opened my eyes.
I was brought into the world of historical fiction and young adult, which gave the story an edge that I craved for years to come. I was brought into this new genre of darker fiction. However, it also kept that coming-of-age element that I loved so much.
From topics such as book burnings to bombings, Zusak weaves these dark topics into a coming-of-age story, creating a piece of literature unlike anything I had ever read before, thus becoming one of the most impactful novels I had ever read.
The novel was significant for me because, without revealing too much, it was the first novel I read without a happy ending. Up until that point, every story I read wrapped itself up in a nice, neat bow. However, because of the time that “The Book Thief” is set in, an unhappy ending is pretty inevitable. However, the ending still shocked me at my young age, but it helped me to understand more about life’s harsh realities. In fact, it was the first book to ever make me cry, and it made me feel emotions I had never felt before after reading a novel.
There are so many reasons why this book was so significant to me that to go through them all would keep us here all day, but, in short, the book is beautifully written, and I was able to experience emotions I had never felt while reading a book before. It greatly broadened my horizons and exposed me to new ideas.
This novel, from beginning to end, from the narrator choice to the word choice, is a work of art. I would recommend that everyone read this book at least once in their life, because of the way it is written, its themes, and its approach to life, death, and hope.
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