Sunday, December 9, 2007

The Book Thief Update

Recently in The Book Thief Liesel begins school, however because of her level of education she is in a class with kids much younger than herself. When Liesel wakes up screaming from her nightmares, a nightly routine, Hans Hubberman will read from The Grave Digger's Handbook (the small black book Liesel found/stole from her brother's grave site) to comfort her. One night, when Hans asks Liesel how many words on the page she can read, she replies that she can read about half. Hans later discovers that she can only read three words. Later, he begins to re-teach Liesel the alphabet and and shows her how letters are arranged to make words. They call this nightly session their "midnight class", these "classes" start after Liesel's bed-wetting incident (she became so terrified of her nightmare that she had a little accident). Eventually, Liesel is moved up into the class with kids her own age, though she still can't read as well as the rest of them. Among her classmates is a boy by the name of Rudy Steiner. Rudy and Liesel become very good friends and walk to school together every day. They also play daily soccer games with the other children in the neighborhood. Rudy decides that he is in love with Liesel, and he sticks up for her when she reads aloud in front of the class, a complete disaster. Liesel is made the "heavy-weight champion of the school-yard", when she beats up two boys for making fun of her reading ability. A lot of things are going on right now in the book, this was just a quick summary of the key events.

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