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Re: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Posted by Bobbi on 3/01/08
Your review was quite moving....my son absolutely loved this
book, and recommended it to many of his friends. The group
of boys all read it as 5th graders. I'm sure it might not
be for all younger kids, but there are some very mature,
young readers out there. It was just rivoting listening to
their discussion about the book. As a teacher, however, I wouldn't recommend it for classroom
reading at the grade school level. On 2/19/08, Sean Camoni from Borders Educational Services
wrote:
> Just a quick review:
> Book Thief
> by Marcus Zusak
> The tale of a young girl struggling to survive in Nazi
> Germany during WWII. I know what you're thinking - sounds
> familiar, right? Nope. You've never read anything like
> it. The girl isn't Jewish, but she is a thief. And the
> narrator is Death. He and the girl have crossed paths a
> few times, and unlike millions of other souls, she has
> made an impression on him.
> Until you sit and swim in its poetic language, its vivid
> characters, and visceral tragedy, you won't understand the
> power of the Book Thief. As a bookseller, I've been
> recommending this book to every teacher I talk to, to my
> coworkers, and my family and friends. Markus Zusak uses
> language physically; dozens of times I felt punched in the
> stomach by a jab of a phrase. Over the last twenty or
> thirty pages, I held my breath, I cried for an hour, and I
> had to tell my wife not to talk to me until I finished. I
> have never read a story about war and love and life and
> death that has broken my heart so completely with its
> poetry and truth. Congratulations to Markus Zusak on
> creating a novel that really should be around forever.
>
> PS- While this is being marketed as a young adult book
> (and I think high-schoolers should read this) adults will
> not be disappointed. I would not give it to a child
> younger than high-school age because of some PG-13
> language and the difficulty level. This is heady stuff,
> beautifully wrought, but not simple.
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