Summer Reading Assignment Four

The Book Thief was a book that popped to me. It was a book that took place during the WW2 time period, but showed how daily lives were impacted rather than that of a soldier as most other WW2 books do. This point of view interested me because we have all heard the war stories told by soldiers who come back from large operations, but we never hear the bystanders point of view. I usually like to read about stories from WW2, so this one stood out because of its unexpected and under used point of view. Some connections I can make to the book, include my knowledge about  WW2 and what was happening in Germany and other countries. I also saw a personality connection in the hardheadedness of the Protagonist, Liesel Meminger. Another connection I could make was a text to text involving the books Saving Zasha and Finding Zasha, both from a civilian point of view, but with a very different point of view ( in finding Zasha the boy is joining the rebels and in saving Zasha the boy is hiding a German shepherd from his Russian village). I would recommend this book to any WW2 enthusiast or anyone who wants to read a tale about WW2. I would also recommend this book to anyone who would like to see WW2 from a civilian point of view instead of the soldiers.

Summer Reading Entry Three

The quote that I found to be a good hooker in The Book Thief comes fairly early in the book. The quote sets up some interesting ideas for the reader to ponder and play with for predictions and foreshadowing. "Eventually, Liesel Meminger walked gingerly inside. Hans Hubermann had her by one hand. Her small suitcase had her by the other. Buried beneath the folded layer of clothes in that suitcase was a small black book, which, for all we know , a fourteen-year-old grave digger in a nameless town had probably spent the last few hours looking for. "I promise you," I imagine him saying to his boss, " I have no idea what happened to it. I've looked everywhere. Everywhere!" I'm sure he would never have suspected the girl, and yet, there it was-a black book with silver words written against the ceiling of her clothes: The book thief had struck for the first time- the beginning of an illustrious career." - Markus Zusak. The context of the book at this time allows this to hook the reader, because we know it is narrated from a third person view ( by who we can predict is death, given how he describes himself). The quote hooks the reader because it entices them to find out what other books she will steal, and what do each of them mean. Are they for fun?Money?Knowledge? The reader must find out by reading more after this hooker.