Book Thief by Markus Zusak ~ March Book Club Online

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  everyone is welcome to join in.

 

The Book Thief -  March 1
Everyone is invited to join in!  

"Fortunately, this book isn't about Death; it's about death, and so much else."   "Some will argue that a book so difficult and sad may not be appropriate for teenage readers. "The Book Thief" was published for adults in Zusak's native Australia, and I strongly suspect it was written for adults. Many teenagers will find the story too slow to get going, which is a fair criticism. But 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 Book Thief is a complicated story of survival that will encourage its readers to think." (Bookmarks Magazine) "How can a tale told by Death be mistaken for young-adult storytelling? Easily: because this book's narrator is sorry for what he has to do. The youthful sensibility of "The Book Thief" also contributes to a wider innocence. While it is set in Germany during World War II and is not immune to bloodshed, most of this story is figurative: it unfolds as symbolic or metaphorical abstraction. "The Book Thief" 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)

Discussion Schedule: March 1-2 ~ Prologue March 3-7 ~ Part I & II (the gravedigger's handbook; the shoulder shrug) March 8-14 ~ Part III & IV  (mein kamf; the standover man)              March 15-21 ~ Part V & VI (the whistler; the dream carrier)                 March 22-28 ~ Part VII & VIII (complete duden dictionary; the word shaker) March 29-April 4 ~ Part IX & X (the last human stranger; the book thief)

Some Questions for Your Consideration

March 3-7 ~ Part I & II  (the gravedigger's handbook; the shoulder shrug  )

1.  "One of them called the shots. The other did what he was told."  Death, observing the shivering gravediggers,  asks "What if the other is a lot more than one?"  What is he asking here?

2. Did you notice the mother had a return ticket?   "A final soaking farewell."  Do you see  Liesel's mother - and Rosa Hubermann, for that matter, as victims of circumstance?  Do you think "victim" describes Liesel?

3. Do you wonder why Hans and Rosa Hubermann ever married?   Opposites attract?   How did the author use metaphors to  describe Liesel's new foster parents?  

4. "Most Germans are very fond of pigs."  What does the author mean by this?    Did you notice that most of Rosa's foul words referred to  a sau, a pig?

5. " Do you think  all school children were conscripted into the BDM, Hitler's youth group?  Do you know if  they had a choice?

6. Can you name some of the defining moments for the children on Himmel St. when they realized a larger truth for the first time?
7. Can you think of one reason Hans decided to take Liesel to the bank of the Amper River  for her lessons?  Was it simply to get her away from Rosa?

8.  Why had Rudy Steiner insisted that Liesel take a turn reading before the class?  Were you prepared for her extreme reaction to her taunters?  What set her off?

9.  "Nazi Germany was built on anti-Semitism."   Do you agree with this, or was there more to it?  How do you understand Hans Hubermann's  politics? Was his not joining the party not a mistake?

10. How did  Liesel's adoration of Hitler turn to hatred?  Liesel steals her second book, The Shoulder Shrug - one of three books that  survived  the bonfire.  It smolders against her chest.  Do you think this is significant?  

Relevant Links:
  Readers' Guide Questions: Prologue;  The Book Thief Metaphors ~ Our Favorite Zusak expressions;  A Brief History of German Rule;  Dachau;  

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP & Andy

[JoanK]

I just got my book today, and am hurrying to catch up with you and join the discussion.

Maybe I'm getting rigid in my old age (in which case I need to read books like this. At first, I found the style of the prologue unsettling, but am coming to apprciate it. The author seems to "tone it down" just the right amount in the body to be sustainable over a long book.

Now, to wake up my sense of color and read on.

[PatH]

I got my book Sunday, and have now read up to date and caught up on the pre-discussion and discussion.  I'm having trouble figuring out what to say about the book, though.  At first, I wondered if I would get tired of the disjointed style--little splashes of insight splatted on the page like blobs of paint--but I'm getting into the spirit of it.  It's certainly working well for him; I'll probably end up deciding, like Gumtree, that it's brilliant.

[straudetwo]

There are excerpts of each chapter of the book available on line and extensive discussions on the web. I've read them carefully.  The language is matter-of-fact, conveying both innocence and simplicity and (to me)
seems  aimed at an adolescent readership.  

Because I was in Europe beforeI have tried, during the month-long prepdiscudssion, to comment on the historic background of the story. I will answer any other questions fully and candidly, painful and upsetting though they are, but I will not read the book.

Question 4.
"Most Germans are very fond of pigs."
Ohhhhhhhhh
Perhaps the author was thinking in culinary terms of  "pork"?  
That would be true certainly for Bavaria, where the story takes place, but not for MOST Germans.

A Sau is an adult female hog. Used as a swear word it is one of the gravest, most insulting invectives in German and means filthy swine.
The hair on the back of my neck is standing up as I write this. I have zero toleranace for abusive language.
 
Question 5
Yes, school girls and boys were automatically drafted in to what was called Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth).
The boys in the Jungvolk, the girls in the Bund deutscher Mädchen (BdM).
Under a dictatorial regime people do as they are told, they follow orders. There was no choice.

Question 6
Did ou know that Himmel in German means heaven? Might this be an ironic reference? Surely it was not heaven for Liesel.

Question 9
With respect, the quoted sentence is  worded ;poorly in my humble opinion.
Antisemitism was definitely built in to the Nazi doctrine, Hitler's pet project, his obsession.  He talked incessantly ad nauseam about the Aryan Rce and its superiority.  It became his creed. It began to affect the populace slowly, it crept into the textbooks gradually.  Between 1933 and 1938 Jews  just "disappeared". The shunning of the Jews, their persecution,  began in 1938. People were afraid. All people.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, my father was cautious. My mother became an enthusiastic follower. His picture hung in the foyer.  His picture was in every classroom. The indoctrination was constant and relentless.
I remember the surprise, the consternation when my father had to prove that there were no Jews in his family tree, or he would have lost his job.
 
Not only books by Jewish writers were condemned but their art as well.  It was called "entartete Kunst" = decadent art and banned.  The book burnings were deliberate symbolic acts of contempt,  born of hatred.

How can one forget horrors like that?  Especially those one has experienced?

[Gumtree]

Thank you Traude.

And we MUST not forget. That is why books such as this one are so important. They must be written and equally must be read especially by those such as myself who did not experience the horror. The story must be told again and again and to new generations as well, lest we do forget.

[PatH]

Traude, I hope you can stand it to stick with us; your input is so valuable.

"Germans...are very fond of pigs".  I took this to be irony, since we had just been treated to a lot of pig-related expletives.  It's good to learn just how very offensive these expressions are.  That's something that's quite difficult for a non-native speaker to judge, since it's all context rather than the literal meaning of the words.

Entartete Kunst:  there was an exhibit of "degenerate art" in Munich in 1937, paired with a "Great German Art" exhibit.

http://www.olinda.com/ArtAndIdeas/lectures/ArtWeDontLike/entarteteKunst.htm

People lined up to see it much more than the approved art.  In the early 1990s, there was an exhibit here (Washington, DC) which did a very good job of reconstructing the original exhibit.  Evidently quite a lot of the works escaped the flames.  There was a lot of supplemental material, plus a few of of Hitler's paintings, which ranged from wishy-washy scenery to corny idealistic.

[salan]

JoanP, I don't think Death "lets her survive".  Death has no choice.  He simply picks up the departed souls and carries them on.  He's just doing his job.
 According to what I have read, many people feared the Nazis--not just the Jews.  Anyone they perceived as "different" or a threat had reason to fear.  Once Hitler came into power, many Germans were afraid to express opposition.  That's what happens when "hate-mongers" gain leadership.  I am from the south and know that many "whites" stood up for injustices and were "visited" by the KKK with many warnings and much injury.  I think that many people are unaware of the danger until the radicals have gained power, and then most people are afraid to act openly.
Hatred is a hunger that cannot be sated.
Sally

[Babi]

But why would she be in danger?

 I can't really answer that, PAT. It was Death who identified her as a
survivor. May he will explain that more fully in time.

 GUM, there is an article in last month's "Smithsonian" magazine, about attempts to
preserve Auschwitz. My first reaction was 'Why would anyone want to preserve the site
of so much horror. Burn it to the ground and scatter the ashes!"  But my second, and
better, thought was just what you expressed.  We must no allow what happened there
to be forgotten.

[JoanP]

Welcome to you, Traudee, and JoanK and Pat H too!   Aren't we blessed to have so many of you join in the discussion.  I'm sure our appreciation and understanding of this book will be all the richer.  It already is!

PatH, Zusak's metaphors are contagious.  "...the disjointed style--little splashes of insight splatted on the page like blobs of paint."
 I think we ought to include our posters' metaphors along with Zusak's on the special page we are getting together today.  Please be sure to post those that catch your attention as we move along.
Traudee, we understand why reading this book would be painful for you to relive this period of your life - as PatH points out, your input is invaluable to us and we are so grateful that you are here to help us understand what it was like for the German citizens at the time.
Perhaps when you see the collection of metaphors and images Zusak has used to tell his story, you will be able to experience second-hand, his talent and the originality of his writing style.

From your post yesterday -
Pigs - "Most Germans are not fond of pork."  I can see from PatH's comment - that this would be irony since we have just been treated to a lot of pig-related expletives.  It was shocking to hear these words come from the mouth of Liesel's foster mother, don't you think?  Do you think this shows that she was a coarse person, not as well-brought up as that house-painter of a husband she keeps putting down as beneath her?  You don't ever hear Hans talking like that.  How quickly Liesel picks the expletives from mama, though.  Sad.


Himmel - Yes, Heaven St.  It's got to be more irony, don't you think?  Mostly poor folk live here, but they are the working poor.  They have food to eat.  Liesel's foster family seems better off than her own family.  Otherwise her mother would not have given up Liesel and her little brother.  The boy who died on the train seemed sick and malnourished.  Perhaps as the story progresses the name of the street will take on more significance.

  "Nazi Germany was built on antisemitism"  Traudee tells us that Antisemitism was definitely "built into the Nazi doctrine."  His creed was the superiority of the Aryan Race.  We read that you were either with the Fuhrer or against him. Sally reminds us that  many people feared the Nazis--not just the Jews.  Anyone they perceived as "different" or a threat had reason to fear.   Once Hitler came into power, many Germans were afraid to express opposition.  Those who were not with him disappeared.  Look how fearful Rudy Steiner's parents were when he publicly emulated Jesse Owens, a black man.  He wanted a populace of Germans who were blond and blue eyed and subserviant.
Zusak makes a point of describing eye color - do you remember how he describes Liesel's?

 

[JoanP]

Babi, if memory serves, the story begins in 1939 when Liesel arrives in Munich with her mother.  I remember how Zusak describes all of those people coming off the train - "a train packed with humans. The passengers slid out as if from a torn package"   Ella posted yesterday "the day was gray, the color of Europe."  Europe seems to be torn package too, no?

I found the chapter of Liesel's arrival at Himmel Street after being taken from her mother, most wrenching.  Traumatic.  The bedwetting incidents indicate just how disturbed she still is, years later.  Why did her mother leave her?  She cannot understand this.  What do you think happened to her?  Do you think she returned home? Or?

During the Pre-discussion Traudee brought us some information on the camps

"As I said, the early Nazi concentration camps were built originally for civilian political opponents: Communists, Socialists, "sexual deviants", and others.   Between 1933 and 1945, 20,000 such camps were built in Germany and in the occupied countries (Poland, the Netherlands for example)."  

This site tells of the first of the "political prisons" - Dachau.  Since it is located just outside of Munich and the story is set in Munich, it might be worth reading up on it.

What do you think - should these camps be burned to the ground?  I've never been able to learn for certain what the average German citizen knew about what was happening in the camps - until they were liberated and the horrible truth was shown to the world.

[bookad]

Hello there

My name is Deb and I accessed your site via ‘Story of Civilization’, Non-fiction and finally your readers group.

The book looked so interesting I looked it up in the library, and have a copy for the month.  It was in the young adults section I was surprised to discover. 

What a book! I quite often find ironically that my current read relates to another in some way; and last year about this time I find I had read
 ‘The Fetch’ by Laura Whitcomb`
Calder, aged in earth years 19 –in death years 330- he belongs to the Order of the Fetch, & escorts the newly dead to Heaven--the book takes place in the early 1900s  he as he steps back to Earth, an unheard of thing to do for a Fetch---he steps into Rasputin's body..................
It was an excellent read!

www.readersopinions.com
Above is the database where I’ve kept track of the books I’ve read since 2001 and I read this book mid March last year


I found the idea so intriguing & was hoping to read another of this type, and …well here with your group, it is

I feel this  ‘death’ character is such an entity---- kindhearted

At the graveside, he bowed his head with the others…he waved at them as they left even though no one noticed them…I feel empathy for him/her/it with the range of thoughts, feeling, job-related conflicts, insights that he/she/it shares

I am a Canadian, living in Central Ontario in the summer/fall--Brownsville, Texas fall/winter
My husband, Glenn & I travel in our RV with our 4 animals, Billie, our collie-x, & 3 cats, Casey, Kipper, & Callie (our little Texan)
Deb

[ALF43]

BOOKAD-- well bless by soul, it is a very large welcome that we offer to you.  Please come in, sit down and join our group.  We have quite a selection of participants, from all over the world as well as an eclectic choice of books that we discuss.
Did Robby welcome you into his Story of Civilazation?  He's been with us from the onset and does a brilliant job vacillitating that discussion.  
Here we respect and discuss any thoughts and opinions that you are willing to bring to our table.  Again, a hearty welcome to you.
I hope that you, your hubby and animals have managed to stay warm this winter.  I live in Florida and haven't been out of jeans and sweat shirts for 3 months.

 

[ALF43]

Joan, I don't think it mattered if Liesel was a Jew or not.  any one who was a dissenter would have been in jeopardy.  Hitler didn't allow many to practice protestations or to agitate other's thoughts.
Poor Liesel, I empathized with her immediately.  Not only did she experience the death of her brother but like those other people she was being displaced as well -- to the Hubermanns.  
How can a child survive these traumas, all at once?  She "wished that she was pale enough to disappear altogether."
Thank the Lord for Papa who coddled her and touched her heart.
She noticed the strangeness of his eyes:  They were made of kindness and silver.
"like soft silver, melting."

Mama rules with the iron fist and papa's eyes are soft metal of silver.
WOW-- speaking of contrast.  How's that for metaphors Joan?
Papa also played the accordion for them. "She especially loved to see him hit the silver, sparkled button- the C major, and papa made that accordion live."

The author interjects a beautiful thought right here.

How do you know if something's alive?
You check for breathing.

Just as she had to do with her little brother.

[ALF43]

Keeping in mind we are only reading Parts I and II this week, which one of those kids would you gravitate towards if you were little Liesel?
Can we take a moment to look at these kids.

Rudy- the little kid next door who likened himself to Jesse Owens
Tommy Muller- a deaf child with tics (he reminded me of the Owen Meany)
Pfiffikus-the abusive kid with WHITE hair, a black raincoat, brown pants, decomposting shoes and (oh what a mouth). He constantly whiltled the Radetzky March.
LISTEN HERE TO THE VIENNA CONCERT

This was the kid who whirled abuses- any imprression of serenity was violently interrupted, for his voice was brimming with rage.
It sounds to me as if this kid has already been indoctrinated.

[Laura]

I have many thoughts bouncing around in my head.

As for who Liesel’s mother was and what happened to her, I reference page 115 of the paperback:

The Fuhrer.
He was the they that Hans and Rosa Hubermann were talking about that evening when she first wrote to her mother.  She knew it, but she had to ask.
“Is my mother a communist?”  Staring.  Straight ahead.  “They were always asking her things, before I came here.”
Hans edged forward a little, forming the beginnings of a lie.  “I have no idea --- I never met her.”
“Did the Fuhrer take her away?”
The question surprised them both, and it forced Papa to stand up.  He looked at the brown shirted men taking to the pile of ash with shovels.  He could hear them hacking into it.  Another lie was growing in his mouth, but he found it impossible to let it out.  He said, “I think he might have, yes.”

Since the book began in 1939, I assume that Liesel’s mother must have been in some counter Hitler movement or resistance group.  She was under suspicion and so brought her children to a safe place to protect them.  Unfortunately, only Liesel survived the journey.  Based on Hans’ reaction, he did know Liesel’s mother.  Further, I think he believes she has been turned into ashes in one of the camps because the auther has Hans thinking while looking at the pile of ashes.  No coincidence, I think. 

I am interested to see how this part of the story develops.  Where is Hans playing the accordion at night and is he really playing the accordion?

[Laura]

A couple of thoughts on metaphors:

“On the other was the squat shape of Rosa Hubermann, who looked like a small wardrobe with a coat thrown over it.”    (page 27)

That was a funny metaphor!  This next one is puzzling to me, from pages 99-100:

There was pulse and yellow light, all together.

Her breathing calmed, and a stray yellow tear trickled down her face.

No matter how many times she tried to imagine that scene with the yellow light that she knew had been there, she had to struggle to visualize it. 

The strange thing was she was vaguely comforted by that thought, rather than distressed by it.

I think the yellow light was the soul of Liesel’s mother, coming to Liesel at the time that Liesel realized that her mother was dead.  Then she shed a yellow tear for her mother.

What do others think?

[ALF43]

Laura- In regards to Rosa's squat shape, I believe you've picked up on the humor that Zusak laces and weaves in and out of  the story.  There are numerous sentences like that one and as sad as this story can be, joy creeps through with the talent of the author. We will continue to look for these statements.

There was pulse and yellow light, all together.

AH -ha you've picked up another color reference.  Yellow is important in this story as Schiller Strasse- The Road of yellow stars. Hitler had the Star of David plastered throughout the neighborhoods on all of the doors of the Jews.
  Another moving quote is:

These houses were almost like lepers

.
  Aw-- that is so painful to me when I read that sentence.  Like lepers, as if they were infected and contagious after they had been attacked by hatred.


Yes, it very well could have been the thoughts of her mother Laura .

Her breathing calmed, and a stray yellow tear trickled down her face.

"Had it been dark, she realized, that tear would have been black."

 

[straudetwo]

It may be helpful to know that the population of Bavaria has always been exclusively Roman Catholic.
Hence it is safe to assume that the Hubermanns were Catholics.  
Liesel was brought in from the "outside",  conceivably from a  region where Catholics were not the only Christian denomination.

A crucial question may be when this took place, BEFORE or AFTER 1933.  Another question is what exactly happened to Liesel's mother, and why.  Liesel's being Lutheran was uncommon , yes, but hardly a reason to endanger her.

[countrymm]

 KINDLER answer here. 
Yes, it worked!  I checked the additions you made to the reading schedule and I'm clear now on how far I should read.  I am LOVING this book.  Every time I happen upon a "beautiful WORD phrase", I bookmark it on my Kindle and then just stop reading and I revel in the feelings the author has created in me.  What a delight.

I remember checking this book out of the library several years ago and not finding the time to get to it.  Maybe that's for the best because now I have you to share the book with.  Thanks for the discussion.

[PatH]

Countrymm, I think this is a particularly good book to share, because there are so many little good touches that it's easy to miss, and others call them to one's attention.  It's good you're with us.

Traude, I think the book starts in 1939.  It's becoming clear that Liesel's parents were communists.  On page 115, Liesel asks her adoptive father  "Is my mother a communist?....They were always asking her things, before I came here."

She asks "Did the Fuhrer take her away?"  He looks at the ashes of burned books and can't bring himself to lie: "I think he might have, yes."  Then, when she says she hates the Fuhrer, he doesn't comfort her as he wants to, but slaps her and says "Don't ever say that!"  He's protecting her.

[straudetwo]

PatH, Thank you.
Oh yes, Communists,  that would do it.  They were H's most most tenacious, most dangerous adversaries in his climb to power. 
 

[Babi]

 Liesel's foster mother does raise one's eyebrows, doesn't she. She
strikes me as the kind of person who prides herself on being blunt and
forthright. No sugar coatings for her.
  So many Jews lost their lives under the Nazis, we tend to forget other
groups suffered also. Gypsies, I recall, blacks, homosexuals,...anyone
who did not fit into the grand Aryan race. A terrifying time and place
to live.

 A warm welcome, BOOKAD.  I live in Texas, near Houston, and I see you
travel as far south in Texas as you can get w/o finding yourself in
Mexico. You can generally count on keeping warm down there.

ALF, LOL! I'm sure you meant Robby was 'facilitating' the discussion.
Vacillation has a very different meaning. 

 LAURA, I think that Liesel has a painful memory that involved a yellow
light that cast it's color on the event. It is something she knows
happened, but she cannot quite remember. But she knows it was bad and
finds it comforting that she cannot remember it.

[JoanP]

Good morning, Babi!
I'm smiling at the facilitate/vacillate typo - quite often we faciliators do vascillate, n'est-ce pas?
I'll echo the welcomes, Debbie.  Delighted that you found us! And that you located the book - in the young adults section of the library!  I can't get over that.  Someone ought to talk to librarians about this.  Maybe a compromise - one copy in the YA and another in the Adults section.
We are all getting used to this concept of Death - as a "kindhearted" entity - I had forgotten his goodbye wave at the boy's gravesite, the one that no one noticed.  Ah well, he'll have another chance someday...


Countrymm, I'm glad adding the titles to the discussion schedule helped our  Kindler.  as PatH points out, this is a good book to share because  there are so many good touches it's easy to miss them. We hope that you will share some of those beautiful word phrases you have been bookmarking .  The page with the growing collection of shared phrases and metaphors  should be ready today...I hope.  Please everyone, continue to post those that caught your attention.

Andy, you mentioned old Pfiffikus as one of the kids of Himmel St..  He certainly acts like one, doesn't he.  I'm finding that Zusak uses some of his best metaphors when describing adults.  One of my favorites is the candy shop lady - Her shop is white and bloodless.  She really scares me.  Every little metaphor used to describe her scares me.  She's looking for trouble, for dissenters - surely she will find one or more before the story is told.

[JoanP]

Traudee asks, just where is Liesel's mother?  I wonder about that too.

Babi, in the Dachau link - I think I'll put that in the heading because it goes into the description of the place in detail - the inhabitants as well as the facility itself.  All sorts of dissenters, as you mention.  Including communists.  I don't think the crematoria were constructed yet.  The date is in the link....I think in 1939 that these were political prisons...I don't think they were killing people - yet!

Laura, Liesel's father was a Communist too, right?  So Hans and Rosa are aware that the girl's parents have been apprehended, but is it certain that either one of them have died?  Although it is a given that her mother is not coming back.  I'm seeing that it is a one way trip out of town.

So if there is a prison there on the Amper River in Munich, doesn't it seem possible that her mother is in that very prison?  If so, does Hans know that when he takes Liesel to sit beside the river for her lessons, just meters from the prison wall?
 

Dachau.  

[ALF43]

Oh My-  Thank you Babi for picking up on my typo.  ahahha- I'm sure Robby would not appreciate me referring to him as indecisive.  My fingers move faster than my brain.

[JudeS]

About Liesel's  parents Communist affiliation it is quite spelled out near the beginning of the book. On page 31  (hard covered copy), near the beginning of the chapter  Growing Up A Saumensch there is a whole bit about her Father being a communist.  I quote from the book:

....she had dangerous eyes. Dark Brown.  You didn't really want brown eyes in Germany about that time. Perhaps she had received them from her father.............There was really only one thing she knew about her father.  it was a label she did not understand.

                                                             *** A STRANGE WORD** *
                                                                            Kommunist

She'd heard it several times in the past few years
"Communist".
.....rooms filled with questions. And that word.  That strange word that was always there somewhere,  standing in the corner watching from the dark.......

The paragraph goes on about how her mother was hounded about this. Perhaps this is the reason that Leisels mother
gave her up to foster care.  She was trying to shield her from herFather,s fate.  Many Jewish families also gave their young children up to German Christain families, hoping thus to save their lives.
Poverty may have had something to do with it.  However poverty was a result of the discrimination against Communists and not the origin of the families problems.  Even though the family was not Jewish they were , like Gypsies, Jews etc., on the extermination list.     

[JoanK]

The author does tell us that Liesel's father was a communist, but yet he lets you share in the Liesel's feeling of vague menace: there's SOMETHING but she doesn't quite know what. That's good writing.

I love Zusak's images too: only occasionly they are strained, and you think "he's trying too hard". But most of them carry you along.

[JoanK]

DEB: I've always wanted to go to Brownsville. It's known among birders like me as a place where you can see birds that aren't found anywhere else in the US. Are you interested in birds?

[joangrimes]

Well I finally found the discussion of the book.  I had lost it and was feeling left out because I was missing it.   I hope that I do not get lost again. I am reading on my Kindle too.
JoanGrimes

[Laura]

The comments on Liesel’s mother and father were helpful.  History is a weak subject of mine.  I didn’t realize that Communists were targeted by Hitler.  I also missed the reference to Liesel’s father as a Communist.  The link on the prison was very informative, so I do understand that both of Leisel’s parents could be alive, but is that what the author wanted us to think at this point in the book?  I also wonder if the author expected the reader to be able to deduce that the prison on the river could hold Liesel’s parents.  In all honesty, with respect, I feel like I know too much information now, have only read through the assigned sections.

[JoanP]

Good morning!
JoanG, we wondered where you were.  Please jump right in.  Two things that might help you catch up - for you Kindlers, we have included the names of the Chapters in the Discussion schedule in the heading so that you know where we are.  Also, in the Relevent links, we are including the guide questions for previous chapters - in this case, the Prologue.  
Welcome - at last!

Laura, I'm not sure what the author wants us to believe at this point. (I haven't read any further than these early chapters either.)  To me, it seems he wants to get the point across that these children of Himmel St. are coming to the realization that their lives are changing, that things will never be the same again.  Have you noticed that this realization usually comes with a slap in the face - or a beating with a wooden spoon?  

Jude, do we know for a fact that Liesel's mother was a communist?  It her father was taken away, wouldn't her mother have been taken too - at the same time?  Both Rosa and Hans are aware that something has happened to her though.  Perhaps she died of the same illness -  or perhaps she IS in the prison, right there in Dachau.  Laura, the author has told us that the prison - Dachau,  is located beside the river, not more than 30 meters where Hans has begun to take Liesel for her lessons.  That's all he has really told us.  The rest is just suggestion.

JoanK, I agree, the author has the ability to convey meaning through suggestion.  Liesel senses without knowing. When you come across an example of where you think the Zusak may have "tried to hard," will you share with us?  Or do you think that the story is told so metaphorically (did I just make up a new word?) - that it comes across as too much...
What do you think?  Did Zusak sit down with the intention to tell the story in metaphor and then labor over them to get them just right?  Or do they just flow from his pen?  I'm wondering whether is earlier books are written in this manner.

Jude, I noted Liesel's "dangerous brown eyes"  too.  Why dangerous?  From her father, perhaps?  Is the suggestion here that he was not a German?  I'm wondering if those brown eyes will cause her to be suspect as the story develops.  The author makes much of eye color - and hair color, doesn't he?  The bluer, the blonder, the better.  Andy, Hans' steely, silvery eyes are gray then?  .  Not true blue like Rosa's. My father's eyes were gray too.  Yet he would have called them "blue".  I am loving this writing!

[Frybabe]

It never ceases to amaze me that while Hitler promoted the blue eyed, blond Aryan THE superior race, he himself was relatively short, dark eyed and dark hair. People bought into this and yet he was the one in power.

A word about "Mein Kampf": I was in a high school class with a girl who actually read it. She commented that while Hitler started out sounding reasonable she could actually see through his writing how nutty (my word) he became as she progressed through the book. She made it sound as if he was going nuts while he wrote the book. My guess is that he was already there but was expert at taking things that sounded reasonable on the surface and then proceeding to grotesquely pervert them through some convoluted logic. I have never read the book.

[Babi]

 JOANP, that is a possibility that never occurred to me, that Liesel's
mother might be in that prison. It would certainly be in character for
her foster father to take her there so her mother might possibly get a
glimpse of her. But of course he wouldn't tell Liesel as it would only
upset her greatly. So,..maybe so.

 

To me, it seems he wants to get the point across that these children
of Himmel St. are coming to the realization that their lives are changing,

(JoanP)
 I think this is why some libraries may have this book in the YA
section. The lead character is a young girl and the story centers around
her age group.
  And the emphasis on eye color...wouldn't that be because the Nazis
place such importance on coloring? Anything other than Aryan is under
suspicion.

ALF, my fingers used to do that. Now I have a hard time getting some of
them to do as they're told. I come up with some odd gaps; I make a habit
of proofreading before posting.

[salan]

I got the distinct impression that Liesel would never see her parents again.  I think this is what her mother feared and why she wanted to place her in foster care.  I never thought about her mother being in the nearby prison.  I love Zusak's style of writing and do not find it labored at all at this point.
Sally

[joangrimes]

As I remember it from my reading of this book, it is stated that Liesel's father is dead.  She knows that he will not be back. I got the idea that the mother was trying to save the two children.  I will be back later.
Joan Grimes

[Ella Gibbons]

"If her mother loved her, why leave her on someone else's doorstep?....The fact that she knew the answer-if only at the most basic level-seemed beside the point.  Her mother was constantly sick and there was never any money to fix her.  Liesel knew that.  But that didn't mean she had to accept it.  No matter how many times she was told that she was loved, there was no recognition that the proof was in the abandonment."

DEFINITION NOT FOUND IN THE DICTIONARY

NOT LEAVING: AN ACT OF TRUST AND LOVE, OFTEN DECIPHERED BY CHILDREN"

                                

[ALF43]

Ella- aside from the father being a "Kommunist", the mother likely felt that she and the children might be next on the "list on interest."  I  agree with Joan G. and Sally.  I felt that she was attempting to save her children from starvation at the very least or a "relocation camp" at the very worst.
Babi-  

I make a habit of proofreading before posting.

You are absolutely correct and it is something that I am guilty of.  Mea culpa

Frybaby- Hitler wrote that book while in prison.  It was partly autobiographical and filled with many inaccuracies and self truths on how he viewed the future of Germany.  He felt that the Jews were the reason for any inadequacy in the world and the "Jews were the German nation's true enemy," he wrote. They had no culture of their own, he asserted, but perverted existing cultures such as Germany's with their parasitism.
As such, they were not a race, but an anti-race.  He wrote against intermarriage and the high purity of the German people.
While Mein Kampf was crudely written and filled with embarrassing tangents and ramblings, it struck a responsive chord among its target -those Germans who believed it was their destiny to dominate the world. The book sold over five million copies by the start of World War II.
--- and so, his fear of the Jews conquering the world began.
Yes, frybaby the people loved him.  He was a great orator and full of charisma.
Once released from prison, Hitler decided to seize power constitutionally rather than by force of arms. Using demagogic oratory, Hitler spoke to scores of mass audiences, calling for the German people to resist the yoke of Jews and Communists, and to create a new empire which would rule the world for 1,000 years.

[ALF43]

Can you imagine??  The soldiers went door to door searching for "fuel" for an enormous fire after the parade, in celebration of Hitler's birthday.
 
Any material: newspapers,posters, books flags antyhing to burn in the name of the Fuhrer was requested.

Fear creeps into the Hubermann household as mama fears that their flag is missing.  At this point didn't you feel the shift in the populace? A furtive existance, perhaps?  Was it fear or excitement?

[JoanK]

BABI: "It would certainly be in character for
her foster father to take her there so her mother might possibly get a
glimpse of her."

I didn't think of that, but I'll bet you're right.

There were only a couple of images that struck me as forced: no point in emphasizing them, when he has so many wonderful ones, especially if no one else felt that way.

[JoanK]

The New York Public Library, on their 100th birthday (1990), published a list of the most INFLUENTIAL (not necessarily the best) books of the last 100 years. I made a project of reading as many as I could, but I drew the line at reading Mein Kampf. I'm glad your friend was braver than I. Maybe if more people had read it earlier, Hitler would have been recognized for what he was earlier.

The non-fiction book for April (Troublesome Young Men http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=1187.msg63038;topicseen#new) bears on this -- about the young Englishmen who recognized Hitler as a danger and got Churchill elected to try and stop him.