Rating: 4 stars
Cover synopsis: Narrated by Death, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out an existence for herself when she discovers something she can't resist -- books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book burnings, the mayor's library and more.
This book came highly recommended to me, and I'm glad I read it. It was an interesting tale about a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany and the unexpected places she finds love. But most of all, it was about the power of the written word. -- from Hitler's use of words for evil to Liesel's use of words for good.
So why only 4 stars? I had to dock it for vulgarity! This is a young adult novel, yet practically every-other page had a swear word or derrogotory term, or it took the Lord's name in vain. So frustrating. I also wasn't wild about the author's device of having Death narrate the story. It seemed contrived in many instances, and impeded the flow of the story in others. Still, it was an interesting tale.
