The Green Wave Gazette January/February 2014 | Page 11

February/March 2014

Page 11

“The Book Thief:” Clever, Dark and Suspenseful
Cassandra Marando
Contributor
When a book has a movie adaptation (movie version released in
2013), it‘s generally assumed to be
an excellent book. ―The Book
Thief‖ is no exception. Published
in 2005 by author Markus Zusak,
it tells the story of a young girl
named Liesel Meminger and her
life with her foster parents in Nazi
Germany. Liesel steals books and
she loves words. Her entire life
shifts when her foster father hides
a Jewish man in their home. ―The
Book Thief“ is about survival, family, and love. Every character is
complicated and deep.

With well-developed characters
and an interesting narrator, the
author tells a clever story filled
with dark humor. The narrator
tells about life in Nazi Germany and

“Liesel steals books and
she loves words.”
- Cassandra Marando
includes a lot of historical facts.
Additionally, “The Book Thief”
provides a different view for the
reader because (s)he gets to see
how German children and citizens
lived during the Wars. Zusak also
uses an extensive variety of figura-

tive language, that allows the
reader to easily picture what he‘s
describing in vivid detail. And,
he doesn‘t use long, drawn-out
blocks of text to describe things.
―The Book Thief“ is written in a
unique style with ―announcements‖
from the narrator throughout the
book and interesting chapter titles
like ―Death and Chocolate.‖ However, the narrator is extremely
blunt. Halfway through (s)he might
jump forward to something that
happens at the very end and then
come back. This way of storytelling
could make the book more suspenseful, or it could irk the reader.
Either way, ―The Book Thief‖
is worth your time!

Candid Photos: Home Math Meet, International Week, Dance Team and Lunch
Time

Snowden the Scoundrel contd. From Page 10 (Eva McCormack)
rity of the United States, what is to
say all Americans or government
employees won’t start doing the
same? He put himself before the
country. In leaking the information,
he thought about the attention he
would get rather than the negative
reputation that would damage the
country. This type of person is not
what we should look up to as a
nation.
Snowden’s reaction to
the attention he has gotten following the leaks is also inexcusable.
Rather than standing by his opinion
that what the NSA is doing is illegal, he ran away to avoid punish-

ment. Toobin also sees this as one
of Snowden’s flaws. Toobin said
“Snowden fled to Hong Kong when
he knew the publication of his leaks
were imminent” He then resorted to
asylum in Russia where he still
remains today seeking protection
and avoiding the U.S government.
His actions are cowardly and certainly not ones that qualify him as
an honorable figure to our