Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Power of Words


The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


Wow! Although this book is a bit long (55o pages) the power of words captivates you the entire time. Not only is this book about the power of words, but the words in this book are powerful. Narrated by Death, it is about a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany. She lives with foster parents, is good friends with the boy next door who always wants to kiss her, and is helping to hide a Jew in her basement.


And, she steals books.


We see how words have a power not only in her life, but in the life of the Jewish man, in the case of Hitler, and also in the lives of those who are close to or touched by the book thief.


Zusack writes in such a way that you can smell what they smell, feel what they feel, and see what they see, in all aspects of the spectrum.


The characters are powerful. The story is powerful. Mankind is powerful, in many different ways. And words are powerful.

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