The Gravedigger's Handbook Sparknotes

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Every book that Liesel comes across has a memory attached to it, and has a significant impact on her actions and relationships. Liesel Meminger is the diligent, compassionate, and assertive star of the novel. She loves books so much that she begins to steals them, even before she knows how to read! Liesel had a tough start towards reading. In fact, without her foster father Hans, and his dedication towards teaching her, she would never have learned how to read at all. Since then, reading has captured Liesels interest. Throughout her stay with her foster parents Liesel found refuge, power, and a clearer understanding of the events that shape up her life. “The Gravedigger's Handbook” is exactly what it sounds like, a handbook teaching you how to dig the perfect graves. It's the first book Liesel steals, and the first book she reads. As with all her books, this one has a bittersweet story behind it. It's bitter as she stole this book from the snowy graveyard of her little brother Werner. It's her only substantial memory of her brother, and mother, whom she isn’t able to see again after that gloomy January day in 1939. For Liesel the book represents a great loss, a great sorrow, and her feelings of abandonment. It represents the end of one phase in her life, and the beginning of another. “The …show more content…

His appreciation was shown when Rudy victoriously rescues “The Whistler” from the Amper River, where it's been thrown by Viktor Chemmel. Rudy’s act shows Liesel his love for her. Death tells us, "He must have loved her so incredibly hard, so hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them” (303). As the end nears, Liesel's feelings for Rudy do grow stronger, but Rudy passes away before we can see whether she'll act on them. In bitter irony, Liesel finally kisses Rudy when he's dead. This stamps something painful on her character,

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