The Introduction to Books and Thievery

SUMMARY:

The narrator introduces himself as death telling the story of Liesel Meminger, an 11 year old girl who is given to foster parents by her mom due to their economic situation, Liesel´s brother had just died. Liesel gets to know her new parents. Mama is mad and CRAZY, Papa is such a good man. She meets a group of kids who play soccer in the street in the neighborhood, that´s where she meets her best friend Rudy who apparently likes her. Liesel is behind her classmates in school because she doesn´t know how to read. Every night has nightmares regarding her brother´s death and sometimes wets her bed, therefore Papa goes to her room, calms her down, changes her sheets, lays with her and reads parts of the Grave Digger´s Handbook, the book she stole. Papa is teaching her words and its meanings, and how they are correctly written, she is very close to him, she rolls his ciggarettes and listens to him playing the accordion. Mama and Liesel go everyday to pick up the the dirty laundry of diffferent people to wash them and iron them. Liesel receives from Papa two books for her birthday. As time goes by, Liesel steals 2 more books, and the war begins, Hitler is in power. She becomes friends with the mayor´s wife who gives Liesel her laundry, Liesel stays sometimes in her house and reads her collection of books.

TEXT RESPONSES:

I would like to respond to the following texts from the Book Thief:

"The mayor´s wife, having let the girl in for the fourth time, was sitting at the desk, simply watching the books. On the second visit, she had given permission for Liesel to pull one out and go through it, which led to another and another, until up to half a dozen books were stuck to her, either clutched beneath her arm or among the pile that was climbing higher in her remaining hand."

I think that Liesel´s passion for reading is extraordinary because books take you to another world, and make you wiser. I think that probably Liesel loves reading because when she lived with her mother she was restricted from books and reading since their economical situation didn´t allow them neither to buy books or educate the children to be able to read books. The second reason I believe that Liesel loves reading is because she´s had so much pain in her life and so much suffering, that books make her happy and take her to another world, a world in which she forgets about everything else, and has her moment of happiness. 

"After another ten minutes, the gates of thievery would open just a crack, and Liesel Meminger would widen them a little further and squeeze through."
I think that Liesel is now in the center, THE CENTER, of the world of books, and she can´t leave it, she can´t stop reading. Sometimes, when we enter in a world we love which blinds us from the real world it may become an addiction, an addiction that can lead us to do anything to stay with it, an addiction that can make us feel great. In my opinion, Liesel has reached the addiction of books, since they take her to another world and make her forget for the moment, the precious moment, her problems.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Liesel is testing the waters with her new parents, she LOVES Papa, everything is doing normal and well. Liesel reaches the wonderful world of books, FINALLY! And guess what? She loves it! However, she loves it TOO much since she starts stealing books. Books take her to heaven and back, and she gets the most out of heaven. Liesel´s passion for books is beautiful, extraordinary and fascinating, and reading is such a great coping skill, however it has taken her to the other extreme, to THIEVERY.