2/18/12 It took me five years to get to Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. The first time someone mentioned it to me, I was surprised I didn’t know about it, but then not so surprised because it is classified as a “children’s book.” The next person who mentioned the book to me had just read a short story of mine that has a two paragraph coda describing the Nazis shooting the Jewish denizens of a small town in Byelorussia. My thought then was that this person wasn’t very well read — one story that involves the Nazis reminded her of another. A few other people tried to describe the book to me, but gave up. Now I know why. The Book Thief is transcends a simple summary. And it is no more a children’s book than is The Diary of Anne Frank. Zusak’s narrator is Death (with a capital D), who had much to do during World War II. The story he tells is his own, but also that of a girl, Leisel, an orphan who is left by her mother in the hands of a foster family, a child at first unable to deal with the abandonment by her birth parents and the death of her younger brother. At the hurried burial in a random cemetery, Leisel snatches a book, a guide to gravedigging. This strange manual becomes her “horn book” as her foster father, barely literate himself, slowly teaches Leisel to read. Leisel goes on to steal more books — from someone who knows she is doing so, in fact, which help her and her neighbors through the eventual allied raids. Another character, a Jew in hiding, hides behind the pages of Mein Kampf, which he eventually paints over and uses as a new canvass for tales written for Leisel. Death, too, is a book thief, and instead of snatching the young girls life tells the reader her story. The layers of plot and meaning are ingenious, and Zusak’s style is original — leading off chapters with summaries, bold-facing and block-quoting significant words. Maybe because his targeted audience is children, Zusak does provide a somewhat happy ending between the bombed out ruins and the walking-dead Jews. But that’s OK for the adult audience too. Zusak is not heavy handed, and, considering the subject, his achievement is remarkable. I downloaded this to my iPad, but it would be a good gift for any teens in your life who think literature isn’t just about dystopias or vampires. Or if that is what they think books are, this could be a game changer. For adults — don’t be silly like I was. The book was published in 2007. I’m glad I finally opened (so to speak) its pages. (A click on the cover picture will take you to the Barnes & Noble site.)