"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

At the end of The Return of the King, I sat in the movie theater and sobbed. Loud, embarrassing sobs.

I loved the movies that much. See, each summer when I was a teen I'd re-read each of the books in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (and Little Women, hoping each time Jo would change her mind and say yes to Laurie), so the books meant a lot to me and I was blown away by how well the movies turned out. Walking out of the theater, I vowed never to see another movie again (until the next Harry Potter movie came out).

Right now I feel I can never read another book. Not after reading The Book Thief. I got to the last few pages and just sobbed.

The book, as many of you probably know, is about a young girl (the titular book thief) and her family in a small German town during World War II. I have read many World War II and holocaust novels. This book, narrated by Death, is the most human. Ostensibly, it's about words: how reading and writing can change us, and how words can be used to create and to destroy. But what you will remember after reading the book is the people.

Zusak paints thousands of pictures with his words. Lemon-haired boys. Cardboard-featured foster mothers. A man with hair like feathers. Reading this book, you will become invested in these characters. Death skips around a bit, tells endings before beginnings, and lets you know he will come for most of the characters eventually. But it's all good. Zusak, through Death, keeps you reading.

I picked this book because my son has to read it this summer for a class he's taking next year at school. I'm so glad I did.

Comments

"The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin

I’m a horrible blogger. Several times this past year, I thought I should just quit this. But I keep being drawn back. So, I’m going to do a little catching up and see how well I remember some of the books I read much earlier this year. Stay tuned. Today, however, I’m just going to write about one. I’ve been singing the praises of The Fifth Season all year even though I’m late to the party: It was published in 2015, and Jemisin is well-known as a gifted writer in the sci-fi and fantasy world. Since then, she has come out with the next two books in The Broken Earth trilogy and has won the Hugo Award three years running. No author has ever done that, let alone a black, female author. Back in 2015 she was the first African-American to win the Hugo for Best Novel. Actually, this year’s Hugos were dominated by women as female authors won in all the major categories. This is important. I’ve been noticing odd twitter posts lately about how women really don’t play video games or ar

"Beartown" by Fredrik Backman

I’m about to be overly effusive: I loved Beartown by Fredrik Backman and I think it is one of the best books I’ve ever read. (See Tangent 1.) I even love the cover. Backman lured us into his Swedish world of curmudgeons and the neighbors who love them with A Man Called Ove and his other novellas. But this isn’t A Man Called Ove . This book has a much larger scope. This feels like the book Backman has always wanted to write but had to wait to give to us until he developed an audience. You got it, bro. I will read whatever else you write in the future. This book more deeply develops his ideas about communities. It is also about parenthood and all the responsibilities that go along with it. It’s about family and best friends who are like family. It’s about belonging. It’s about sorrow and happiness. And there’s some hockey. (Tangent 2.) You will hate some of the parents (Kevin’s, William’s). You will love some of the teens (Amat, Maya, Ana, Benji, Bobo, Leo...). Be prepared

"The Boy at the End of the World," by Greg van Eekhout

I’m very grateful for The Boy at the End of the World , by Greg Van Eekhout. It’s a good, though not outstanding, book. More important, it fills a gap: science fiction for 3 rd -5 th graders. Because at some point during the school year, a teacher will assign a science fiction book report and I will have a hard time recommending books. I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy. And we know how much I like dystopian fiction (a lot). I have no problem finding good science fiction books for teens. In fact, some of the other librarians are tired of me telling teens (regardless of the assignment), “You must read Feed . Everyone should.” Or “You have to read Ender’s Game . You'll love it.” But younger kids come into the library looking for science fiction and it feels like there’s nothing very good. Most of them balk at the length of The True Meaning of Smekday (by Adam Rex), no matter how hard I sell it. They shrug their shoulders at The City of Ember (Jean DuPrau), even when I

Stacked Shelves

Search This Blog