Awards

• Winner of Book Sense Book of the Year Award (Children's Literature) 2007
• Winner of Garden State Teen Book Award (Fiction (Grades 9-12)) 2009
• Winner of National Jewish Book Award (Children/Young Adult) 2006
• Winner of Parents Choice Award (Spring) (1998-2007) (Gold) 2006

Overview

"The extraordinary #1""New York Times""bestseller that is now a major motion picture, Markus Zusak's unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can t resist books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of ""I Am the Messenger, "" has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time."""

Full Product Details

9780375831003

Table of Contents

Reviews

Brilliant and hugely ambitious...Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers...Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it's a great young-adult novel...It's the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope...The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults. - New York Times, May 14, 2006 The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a classic. - USA Today Zusak doesn't sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five with grim, darkly consoling humor. - Time Magazine Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important. - Kirkus Reviews, Starred This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length and subject... - Publisher's Weekly, Starred One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years. - The Wall Street Journal Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited. - The Horn Book Magazine, Starred An extraordinary narrative. - School Library Journal, Starred The Book Thief will be appr

Brilliant and hugely ambitious... Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers... Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it's a great young-adult novel... It's the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope... The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults. - New York Times, May 14, 2006 The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night, It seems poised to become a classic. - USA Today Zusak doesn't sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five : with grim, darkly consoling humor. - Time Magazine Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important. - Kirkus Reviews, Starred This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length and subject... - Publisher's Weekly, Starred One of the most highly anticipatedyoung-adult books in years. - The Wall Street Journal Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited. - The Horn Book Magazine, Starred An extraordinary narrative. - School Library Journal, Starred The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger, It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that. - New York Times Brilliant and hugely ambitious...Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers...Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it's a great young-adult novel...It's the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope...The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults. - New York Times, May 14, 2006 The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a classic. - USA Today Zusak doesn't sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five with grim, darkly consoling humor. - Time Magazine Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important. - Kirkus Reviews, Starred This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length and subject... - Publisher's Weekly, Starred One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years. - The Wall Street Journal Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited. - The Horn Book Magazine, Starred An extraordinary narrative. - School Library Journal, Starred The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger. It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that. - New York Times Brilliant and hugely ambitious Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it s a great young-adult novel It s the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults. - New York Times, May 14, 2006 The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night. It seems poised to become a classic. - USA Today Zusak doesn t sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five with grim, darkly consoling humor. - Time Magazine Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important. - Kirkus Reviews, Starred This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length and subject... - Publisher's Weekly, Starred One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years. - The Wall Street Journal Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just read but inhabited. - The Horn Book Magazine, Starred An extraordinary narrative. - School Library Journal, Starred The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger. It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that. - New York Times

Brilliant and hugely ambitious...Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers...Adults will probably like it (this one did), but it's a great young-adult novel...It's the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable hard-won hope...The hope we see in Liesel is unassailable, the kind you can hang on to in the midst of poverty and war and violence. Young readers need such alternatives to ideological rigidity, and such explorations of how stories matter. And so, come to think of it, do adults. - New York Times, May 14, 2006<br> The Book Thief is unsettling and unsentimental, yet ultimately poetic. Its grimness and tragedy run through the reader's mind like a black-and-white movie, bereft of the colors of life. Zusak may not have lived under Nazi domination, but The Book Thief deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night, It seems poised to become a classic. <br>- USA Today <br> Zusak doesn't sugarcoat anything, but he makes his ostensibly gloomy subject bearable the same way Kurt Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five : with grim, darkly consoling humor. <br>- Time Magazine <br> Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important. <br>- Kirkus Reviews, Starred<br> This hefty volume is an achievement...a challenging book in both length <br>and subject... <br>- Publisher's Weekly, Starred <br> One of the most highly anticipated young-adult books in years. <br>- The Wall Street Journal <br> Exquisitely written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival, and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour <br>de force to be not just read but inhabited. <br>- The Horn Book Magazine, Starred<br> An extraordinary narrative. <br>- School Library Journal, Starred<br> The Book Thief will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier I Am the Messenger, It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that. <br>- New York Times <br> <br>

Author Information

"Markus Zusak is the author of I Am the Messenger, a Printz Honor Book and ""Los Angeles Times"" Book Award Finalist, and the international bestseller, ""The Book Thief, "" which has been translated into over thirty languages and has sold nine million copies around the world. He is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens and lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and children."""

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