I have to admit, I read this book quite a while ago now. Infact I read it within the last two weeks of the summer holidays whilst I was in Tenerife. So, as it stands the minor details are sketchy but the over all plot is an un-forgettable roller coaster of emotion. It focuses around a girl named Liesel Meminger, who lives in Nazi Germany and is narrated by Death himself. On a personal level I found this to be one of the great aspects of the plot. You get the view of this older, wiser being looking in on this profound period of human suffering. Liesel is going to meet her new foster parents when her brother dies and soon after she never see's her mother again. She is bought to Himmel Street where she meets Hans and Rosa Hubermann. They are her new parents and almost immediantly I felt a connection to these people. Hans is the kind of father everyone wished they had. Kind, gentle, moral and a hard-working man. He is a Jew-sympathiser in a very anti-seismic time period. Rosa is much more hardened and has the tendency to swear at every person who upsets her, but she does care for her new found daughter.

The amount of character depth Zusak uses is immense, you learn about every character on the street and begin to care greatly for each of their sufferings. However, at points I did see the need to hurry the plot along a little instead of dragging too much into the characters backgrounds. The plot progresses into the story of how Hans managed to survive the first world war, the answer being that a Jew saved his life. So not to cause spoilers I won't say how he did it, all you need to know is that later on the son of the man who kept him alive appears on the Hubermann's front door. He is a Jew that has been in hiding for a very long time and if they don't help him, he will be sent to the concentration camps. My heart ached at this bit.

Max Vandenburg is an interesting character, I especially found his hallucinations about fighting with Hitler a joy to read. It really was like looking into the mind of a Jew at the time. I also find it interesting when Hitler seemingly calls in back up during one of these fights just because he is losing, calling all of Germany to help him. Max constantly feels guilty about endangering the lives of the Hubermann's, as if they are discovered hiding Jews they will be killed.

'The Book Thief' deals with many themes including the power of words and literature. We are kept at the same pace as Liesel and as she develops her reading she begins to realise where Hitler's power comes from. It comes from his words. That is why he rules the country. His words are so strong they affect everyone else who hears them. This is a great read for teenagers because it highlights how even in today's society, when children find reading of no importance, that they are constantly being controlled by what they hear others say. Another theme the book tackles is the duality of humans. In the horror and suffering of the second world war and the mistreatment of the Jews we see one of humanities darkest moments but at the same time we see the beauty of simple acts of kindness, such as what the Hubermann's are doing for Max. A darker theme is that of guilt. Who's fault is it? Max feels guilty for putting the Hubermann's in danger, Hans feels guilty for not serving his country but also would feel guilty for joining the Nazi's because of what Max's dad did for him. Michael Holtzapfel commits suicide out of the guilt that he lived whereas his brother died on the battlefields.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is an incredibly beautiful book, with great character depth and a plot that really makes you think about the suffering of war and how far your own prejudices will push you. I'd label it a teenage going on adult read because of the theme of Nazi Germany and the philosophical aspects but it's a good children's read for those who want their kids to remember the history that seems to be fading all too fast in modern times.