The Book Thief: Book One, the First Book

The Book Thief is a piece of Holocaust literature by Markus Zusak, and a great one at that. 


During book one, Liesel Meminger, or better known to our narrator, Death, as the the Book Thief.  Liesel and her brother were given to foster parents by their mother, but on the train ride towards Munich, Germany, her brother dies.  The brother has a funeral where Liesel takes a book the one of grave diggers drops, and she takes the book even though she can't read.  When Liesel gets to her foster parents house in a poor part of a town called Molching.  The street she lives on is named Himmel Street, which is very ironic because himmel is German for heaven, and Zusak says "The buildings appear to be glued together, mostly small houses and aprtment blocks that look nervous.  There is murkey snow spread out like carpet.  There is concrete, empty hat-stand trees, and gray air"(27). Not a heaven like picture at all.  Her foster mother is Rosa Huberman is a foul mouthed woman, Liesel's Father Hans Huberman is a accordian playing, painter.

On Himmel Street Liesel meets Rudy Steiner a scawny kid with German blonde hair and safe blue eyes, but even though Rudy sounds like he can stay alive during the Holocaust because of his appearance he might have a tough time.  Rudy seems very tolerate of other races he shows this in the Jesse Owens incident.
Where Zusak writes, "In which he painted himself charcoal black and ran the 100 meters at the local playing field one night" (48).

Liesel Meminger at her new home has nightmares about her deceased brother, Hans Huberman comes to comfort her.  During one of these nightmares Liesel wet the bed, Hans took off the sheets and out came the book, "The Grave Digger's Handbook"  Liesel who was illiterate could not read the book but she wanted to so her father taught her to read from the book, giving Liesel the most important gift in her life, the gift to learn.
Liesel also has a thirst to read and therefore a thirst of knowledge.