Review of The Novel "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

It was a snowy night when Liesel Meminger (the book thief) and her brother Werner which is six years old, were travelling with their mother by train to the town Munich. This town is where Liesel and her brother will be given over into the foster care system. While on the train ride, Liesel has a dream about adolf hitler. He is speaking at a rally, and smiles at Liesel. She greets him in broken german, but before he can respond she awakens from her dream. As their mother is asleep, Werner dies, and Death takes his spirit away. The trains stops, and they exit the train. Two guards from the train argue over what they should do with Werner's dead body. Two days later his body is buried by gravediggers. Liesel digs at her brothers grave, but is carried away by her mother. And before Liesel gets back onto the train, leading to her new home in the foster care, she steals a black book from the cemetery grounds.

In Munich, Liesel is given to the foster care authorities. She is driven to Himmel street, which is heaven in german. This city is where her foster parents live. Her foster parents’ names are Rosa Huberman and Hans Hubermann. The women is described as squat with a short temper. Her husband, Hans, is a tall quiet man who rolls his own cigarettes. Liesel refuses to get out of the car when she first gets to the house, but Hans eventually persuades her to leave. While liesel refuses to leave the car, a crowd gathers at the other side of the street. They stand and watch the scene before Rosa curses them out and tells them to mind their own business. Liesel has only brought with her only a small suitcase containing clothes, and the book she stole from the cemetery grounds: The Grave Diggers Handbook. Death says Liesel will steal many books, and will be made two by a hidden Jew. When Liesel arrives at her new home, she is very malnourished. Her birth father was a communist- but she doesn't really understand what that entails.

Liesel feels as though her mother has abandoned her, but she understands that she is being saved from poverty and that her mother only did this to help her. In the book, Rosa is described as loving Liesel, while a the same time being very harsh towards her. She is constantly shouting swear words at Liesel, and she even called her a pig one time for not taking a bath. Hans treats Liesel a lot kinder though. He is a house painter and accordian player.

He teaches Liesel how to roll a cigarette. As time goes on Liesel begins to not call her foster parents by their names, but instead she refers to them as Mama and Papa. For the first couple of months living with her new parents, Liesel has nightmares about her brother all the time- almost every night. Her nightmares would cause her to wet the bed.