Liesel's Life Revealed In The Book Thief

Books and other written works have been around since the first century. Written in different formats and telling unique stories, each book has helped someone learn or has given someone hope for the future. In The Book Thief, Liesel Meminger, a nine year old girl who has just been dropped off at her foster parents home, is at loss for words and cannot read nor write. Liesel understands that there is a great power in words and a certain hunger starts to grow in her to hold these words in her hands. This earns her the title book thief. After just witnessing the loss of her younger brother and her birth mother abandoning her, she starts to form an important relationship with books, each stolen book having to do with an important event in her life. When Liesel’s younger brother passes away on the train ride to Molching, Liesel and her mother exit the train to a graveyard, where the boys fragile body is buried. Liesel has a hard time believing that her brother is dead, so she spends a few minutes digging into the snow, trying to bring her brother back, when she suddenly

On her twelfth birthday, Liesel receives a book called The Mud Men from her mama and papa. “It was called The Mud Men and was about a very strange father and son” (221). This book symbolizes the relationship between Liesel and her mama and papa. By receiving this book as a gift, Liesel knows that her mama and papa would do anything to make her happy. Another book that Liesel receives from a person that she loves dearly is The Standover Man. “In the morning, when she woke and rolled over, she saw the pages sitting on the floor” (237). This book symbolizes the growing friendship between Max and Liesel. Max has given Liesel this book to show that he truly does appreciate all that she’s doing to keep him a secret and how she is keeping him entertained as the days go