The Book Thief, starts out with Liesel riding a train to Molching. Molching was where her adoptive family lived. On the way, her brother starts coughing a lot. He dies in a matter of minutes. Liesel and her mom, are gathered around two grave diggers. They are digging a hole to put the boy in. The ground was to hard so they just left them there. One of the grave diggers dropped a book, it was "A Twelve-Step Guide to Grave-Digging Success." This was the book thief's first book. They aboard the train, and they arrive at Molching. Liesel says goodbye to her mother, and exits the train station. She was then picked up by the Hubermann's. Soon, they arrived at Himmel Street, (Himmel means heaven in German). When she gets at the Hubermann's house, she learns more about Hans Hubermann and Rosa Hubermann. Hans was a painter by trade, and played the accordion. Rosa washed clothes, and was very bossy. Later, she meets this boy name Rudy. Rudy has blue eyes and blond hair. Rudy's family was huge, and he was always hungry. He was very fast and very smart. They played with the other kids on Himmel Street. The big sport was soccer, everyone played it every afternoon. Liesel wasn't very good at it. School started soon, and Liesel finds out she is a terrible reader. She gets put in the elementary classes, when she was 11. Hans teaches her how to read. They spent all summer, hunched over in the craw space below the house. This was their study room. When Hitler rose to power, every kid was suppose to attend the Book Burning. After watching the Nazis and kids throwing books into the raging bonfire, she notices alone book not burnt. She looks around and swipes, thinking nobody saw her. She doesn't know this, but someone did see her. The Mayors wife, saw her took the book. After the book burning, she is invited to her library. Liesel comes to the library and gets her third book, The Whistler. The book is about a serial-killer, who whistles after he kills somebody. Liesel was 13, when Max came in. Liesel's family wasn't Jewish. Max was Jewish. Max was a 22 year old man, who escaped by the Nazi's when they entered his house. Max was sent down to the basement to hide. He and Liesel soon become great friends, because they have so much in common. They both loved colors, they both lost everyone they knew, and they both loved to read. After awhile, she and Rudy come together and joins a group that steals food. They steal from the the apple and potato farm, owned by a Nazi farmer. Rudy and the main leader get in a fight. The leader was named Viktor. Nobody really knew why he stole, his family was very rich. The fight started when Rudy though they didn't get enough of their share. Viktor threw the book that Liesel had into the freezing river. Rudy jumped into the river and rescued the book for her. After awhile, Max writes a book for her. It was called "The Stand over man." It was about his journey to Himmel Street. Now Liesel is 14, and Hitler is getting powerful. Hitler has now organized the HYA. The HYA, is the Hitler Youth Association. Rudy enters in the running competitions. He wins three of them. Back at Himmel Street, Max has fallen ill. Liesel reads and prays for him everyday. Her mom, loses business to many people. It seemed like Himmel Street, was getting poorer by the day. They were, because of the war. She soon loses business, to the mayors wife. Liesel goes berserk on them, and steals a book from their library. Then, the parade of Jews came down to their street. Hans can't help himself, and throws a loaf of bread to them. A Nazi catches him and reports him. They knew they we're in big trouble. Max runs away once he hears this, knowing the Nazis will come and search their house. He runs without saying anything, and Liesel is heart-broken. The trouble came months later in an envelope. It said he was drafted for the air raids. He had to rescue the dead, and help structure buildings. He went there for three months, but soon he comes home safely. The air raids has cached up to Himmel Street, and soon Himmel Street is forced in a small basement. To calm everyone's nerves, she starts to read out loud. The parade of Jews came once again, and she searched every single one of them. Then she saw him. She ran to Max, but Nazis kept pushing her back. She crawled, fought backed, until a Nazi whipped her. She realizes, she can't communicate to him. She goes into the mayors library and tears up one of the mayors wife's books. The mayors wife, brings her a blank notebook. She decides to write her own book, The Book Thief. She's writing when the air raids came on, she doesn't move. She keeps on writing.
Read this book! It's amazing and the end is VERY good (And really sad). I had to stop it here, but more comes after this.