Thursday, January 30, 2014
Markus Zusak was just named the 2014 winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award. Established in 1988, the award honors an author for significant and lasting contributions to young adult literature. Zusak's novels include FIGHTING RUBEN WOLFE, GETTING THE GIRL, I AM THE MESSENGER and, of course, THE BOOK THIEF.
Kristan’s recent post about the movie adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF inspired me to move this novel to the
top of my TBR pile. And ever since I popped into Barnes and Noble and bought a copy of it a couple of weeks ago, I have been entrenched in a series of obsessive reading
sessions that begin around midnight and last into the wee morning hours. Which
makes me think of Liesel Meminger and her papa. Which makes me smile. It’s sort
of undeniable: This is a book begging to be read by candlelight.
In my case, I settled for the dim glow of a cell phone.
There is too much to say about how good and heart-wrenching
this story is—the blog post would never end—so, like Liesel, I’m simply going to focus on the
words. Below are some of the passages I starred as I read. If you haven’t cracked open
THE BOOK THIEF yet, perhaps these lines will entice you...
When the train pulled
into the Bahnhof in Munich, the
passengers slid out as if from a torn package…p. 25
In Liesel’s mind, the
moon was sewn into the sky that night. Clouds were stitched around it...p. 57
Trust me, though, the
words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her
hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain…p. 80
It was a Monday, and
they walked on a tightrope to the sun…p. 249
The leaf was dry and
hard, like toasted bread, and there were hills and valleys all over its skin…
p. 323
The last thing I
wanted was to look down at the stranded face of my teenager. A pretty girl. Her
whole death was now ahead of her…p. 337
Outside the sirens
howled at the houses, and the people came running, hobbling, and recoiling as
they exited their homes. Night watched. Some people watched it back, trying to
find the tin-can planes as they drove across the sky…p. 372
And, finally, the line that inspired sobs:
Liesel came out. They
hugged and cried and fell to the floor…p. 548
Man, this book wrecked me. But in a good way. It’s the second
book in a year that I’ve felt compelled to hug. Except that in the case of THE
BOOK THIEF, I didn’t hug the book so much as cradle it in my arms.
How did you feel
after reading THE BOOK THIEF? We'd love it if you shared some of your favorite lines and moments, or
ideas and characters from this novel...or from any of the ALA award winners.
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Stephanie, Ingrid, Sarah & Kristan — we read, write, discuss and celebrate Young Adult lit.
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2 comments:
Oh Ingrid, this is like poetry. Thanks for reminding me of how special his writing was.
Sadly I think the only other ALA award-honored book that I've read is ELEANOR & PARK (note to self: remedy this asap!) but that book really moved me too. The language wasn't poetry, but the characters and their relationships were a bunch of tiny earthquakes.
I have semi-mixed feelings about The Book Thief - in terms of the foreshadowing and my lack of empathy for most of the characters. But Zusak is certainly a brilliant writers, and he's definitely one of my favourites. Thank you for the reminder!
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