Teen Review: The Book Thief

Today we're featuring our first Virtual Volunteer* book review from teen volunteer Jacob. Read on for his thoughtful review of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.

In Mark Zusac’s charming novel, The book thief, he is able to capture and captivate his audience throughout the entirety of the novel. Creatively, yet concisely, Zusac details the life of Liesel Meminger whether her family is harboring a fugitive or she’s stealing another book; You will always comprehend what he’s writing. The book begins with a little girl who faces tragedy immediately (among other tragic things happening such as the holocaust and the many events of the holocaust); she has to move to a foster family with her brother, and on the trek to the foster family, her brother dies. This death of her brother sets the theme for the rest of the book: tragedy, triumph, and the importance of books and reading (you’ll see how these connect later!) Fittingly, this novel is narrated by the end himself, Death. Death being the narrator adds a much needed playful (“yeah, right.” You’re thinking right now.) and cynical tone. Overall, this book was great, believe it or not I was sobbing by the end of the book (not sure if it was because I was tired or if it was genuinely sad.) I rate this book 9.4 out of 10. The .6 is missing because of the tears that were shed reading this, and because the book ended on a solid note, leaving no room for cliffhangers (darn!). This book may have caused me emotional turmoil, but it was worth the read and do not regret taking the time out of my day to read it.

*Interested in becoming a Virtual Volunteer? Fill out an online volunteer application, indicating an interest in Virtual Volunteering, then email our volunteer coordinator, Ray Ceo at rceo@glendaleaz.com for more information. We look forward to your reviews!

online novels

Over the past years we've seen books try to incorporate multimedia into their text. It could be written in a blog format, texting and email messages. There's one series that starts with Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman that has website and phone call messages for the reading to search. But the following two examples of books are incorporating online and phone reading. I'm not talking about fanfiction here--which I'm not dogging in anyway since I am completely addicted to Harry Potter fanfic--but rather novels being serialized online and then perhaps being published in book format later.

The first came through an email I got from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, yesterday. Loser Queen is a serialized online novel by Jodi Lynn Anderson that gives readers a voice. The story revolves around Cammy, an outsider who is receiving text messages with the most popular teens' embarrassing secrets. Can Cammy use the information to become the Queen Bee? After a part is published online, the readers can vote on the progress of the story and then voila! it may be in the next segment! At the end of the story, Simon & Schuster will be publishing the novel in paperback format. I just think that it's a great way to involve readers in the creative process.

I was working on ordering books and I read a review about a book that was serialized through cell phone texts. Have you heard about www.textnovel.com? Cell phone novels have been around for awhile in Japan, but here in the U.S. it seems to just be coming around. After reading the review (which I decided not to buy), I was curious to look into the website. Here's what the website has to say about what they are:

"Textnovel is a community of authors and readers using the Internet, cellphones, emails and text messaging to experience a new way to create, read and share fiction and other stories."

I think it has a great potential to reading online. I know that I want to read some of the stories that I saw there! I just wanted to share this information about online reading with you all since I know that I do a vast majority of my reading online there must be others like me out there!

The Great Scavenger Hunt

So I've been gone from here for quite a long time, but I have good excuse I was on maternity leave. Now I'm back and ready to be reading and writing about them.

To start out, here is an interesting project for you readers out there! Kay Cassidy, an author, has created the Great Scavenger Hunt.

This gives you many book titles to read! Print out and answer ten trivia based on the book title and submit your answers to the library (Foothills Library). If you answer 8 or more correctly then you get entered into the monthly prize drawing that Kay Cassidy gives out. The winning reader gets a gift card to Barnes & Noble. So go for it and maybe you'll be a lucky winner!

Nightmare at the Book Fair

Trip gets into more adventures and trouble than I thought possible. Of all the places for these adventures--the library!! Trip is not a reader, mostly he likes anything else. However, he gets stuck helping the PTA President.

The story moves along pretty quickly and the adventure is varied. There are puns galore, hopefully this is not lost on the youngsters reading the book. Some of them are kind of cheesy, but you still have to laugh.

Trip is funny and likable. I think that boys can probably relate to him and feel a part of the adventure. There are also some gross moments that boys are sure to enjoy! It is also a fast read, another sure thing to recommend itself.