The Book Thief: Shmoop Literature Guide Paperback – May 11, 2010

Helped my son with his comprehensive final essay comparing The Bean Trees to The Iliad and The Book Thief.

I am tutoring someone and this came in handy. She is enjoying the book with the help from her tutor and shmoop.

Great assistance while I was prepping to facilitate a discussion of this book. Highly recommended!

I was trying to order the book, The Book Thief, but was sent the Shmoop Literature Guide instead. I hadto return it and asked for The Book Thief to replace the guide. Instead they sent the Shmoop Literature guide again, which I didn't want. I had to return this second one also and just qave up on getting The Book Thief. Evidently Amazon didn't want to send the book to me.

This literature guide is an amateurish, typo-filled mess of a book that is, quite honestly a complete waste of money. Huge disappointment.

"First the colors. Then the humans. That's usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try." And so begins Markus Zusak's extraoridnary novel, The Book Thief. Set in Germany during World War II,this book is about Liesel--and her fascination with books--told by an unusual narrator. Though this book is categorized as a young adult novel, I believe that it will be a good read for anyone. The story is riveting, the characters honest and real, and the narrator--Death. One of the things I loved the most--and the one that I would warn potential readers of--is the style in which the book is written. It is not your typical, everyday novel. The flow is seemingly interrupted at times by the narrator's random inputs and "jokes," but I found that these only enhanced the story. The lack of consistency and the frequent use of flash backs and "flash forwards" could cause some people to lose interest. I, however, thoroughly enjoyed this quirky book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good story.