Classification/Genre: Audio book on Cd/tapes/Historical Fiction
Annotation: This historical fiction is set in Germany during World War ll. The main character is a strong, rough and determined young girl called Liesel Meminger. She was adopted by a family during the war in Germany and though things were a little shaky between her and her foster mother, Rosa Hubberman at first but eventually, she got along with her foster family and became a favorite of Hans. (her foster father) He taught her to read and let her in on a very dark secret; There was a Jew hiding in their basement! Liesel survived the war by stealing books and everything else. Her love for books (reading and writing) saved her. She was writing in the basement of her house when the bomb dropped that killed her family, her neighbors and her best friend Rudy. Although this entire story centers on life and survival during the war, it is the style and presentation of the book that really makes it unique. Death is personified in this story as he does the narration of the story from the beginning to the end.
Justification for Rejection: I enjoyed listening to this amazing story about this little girl and World War ll but felt that the story was too long and sometimes monotonous. The duration of the story was about fourteen hours and since there were lots of characters in the story and constant switching from the past to the present, there was a lot of rewinding and stopping of the audio Cd. It was unique that the story was narrated by death itself that saw in colors and gave vivid and chilling descriptions of its victims before taking them away but I felt that this visual imagery would be better appreciated and assimilated by reading the story in a book. The narrator Corduner Allan did a good job at the narration of the story including doing fine voices for Germans. I thought this was funny but it sort of made light a very serious subject matter. Overall, it was a great story but I think it would be better enjoyed in print.
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