Some of these events, such as the Allied bombing of Munich and the marching of Jews through towns to nearby concentration camps, would serve as key elements in The Book Thief. Growing up, he heard many tales about life in Germany during World War II. He is the youngest child of a German mother and an Austrian father. Markus Zusak was born in 1975 and raised in Sydney, Australia. She writes her own story-and it's a beautiful story-through the ugliness of the world that surrounds her. I thought of Hitler destroying people with words, and now I had a girl who was stealing them back, as she read books with the young Jewish man in her basement and calmed people down in the bomb shelters. Printz Honor more importantly, it sparked the imaginations of readers around the world with its resonant message about the power of words.

The book earned Zusak his second Michael L. As Zusak states in an interview featured in the Readers Guide of the paperback edition of the novel, “I wanted them to see people who were unwilling to fly the Nazi flag, and boys and girls who thought the Hitler Youth was boring and ridiculous.” The Book Thief quickly became one of the most popular works of young adult fiction ofĢ006, topping the New York Times Children's Bestseller List and enjoying significant readership among adults as well. He wanted to show readers that not all Germans were hateful and brutal. However, The Book Thief was a special work for the author the youngest child of German and Austrian parents who later settled in Australia, Zusak grew up hearing tales of wartime Germany. Zusak was already a successful children's book author before The Book Thief, with four previously published novels one of these, I Am the Messenger (2003), was even chosen as Book of the Year by the Children's Book Council of Australia. There, she begins a relationship with books that challenges and sustains her during the darkest moments of war-and, ultimately, even saves her life. Seemingly abandoned by her parents and witness to her younger brother's death by illness, Liesel is sent to live with a foster family in a small town outside Munich.

Markus Zusak's novel The Book Thief tells the tale of Liesel Meminger, a young German girl living during World War II who finds her life increasingly tied to books-many of which, as the title suggests, are stolen.

The book thief series in order