Guiding Questions for The Book Thief
Prologue:
1. What are your thoughts on the identity of the narrator? What details from the text
gave hints about the identity? How will this particular narrator affect the telling of
the story? 3-15
2. What is the relationship of each color to the memory described? 3-15
3. What is the significance of the quote from page 14, “They fall on top of each other.
The scribbled signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy
red”?
Part One:
1. Discuss the sensory description of souls on page 21. What is the effect?
2. “What if the other is a lot more than one?” 23
3. What is ironic about Himmel St.? 26
4. List some adjectives to describe the personalities of Hans and Rosa Hubermann?
5. You have more knowledge you have about history and life than 9 year old Liesel.
With that, what do think is a likely story about her birth parents? 27-end
6. Discuss the “silver lining” of Liesel’s nightmares. 36-38
7. Describe the relationship between Rosa and Frau Holtzapfel. 44
8. Think about Zusak’s descriptions of the various places in the novel, so far, Himmel
St, Frau Diller’s shop, and the road of yellow stars. What are some potential
occurrences, what attitudes are expressed simply through a description of setting?
46-51
9. What are your first impressions of Rudy? 46-49
10. What are some details that show the initial bonding between Liesel and Rudy? 4655
11. What is your reaction to the quote on page 53 about “the appropriate cruelty that
childhood seems to require”?
12. Explain Mr. Steiner’s reaction to Rudy’s Jesse Owens reenactment. 59-61
13. Why might a parent like Mr. Steiner want to teach his child opinions he doesn’t
truly believe? 59-61
14. Compare the description of Rudy’s eyes with the previous description of Liesel’s.
61
15. What are some ways that words and reading might save a life? Try for some
literal and abstract reasoning.
16. Discuss the significance of Liesel’s experience reading in front of the class. 75-78
Part Two:
1. Discuss the greater significance behind Liesel’s desire to finish reading her first
book? 86-87
2. In what ways is Rudy’s first letter to Liesel more appropriate than the second,
approved version? 94
3. What does the knowledge of the outcome of Liesel’s letter to her mother do for
your reaction to the events leading up to Liesel’s discovery of this information? 97
4. “Is there cowardice in the acknowledgement of fear?” p. 107
5. Why might Liesel, lover of books, want to watch the bonfire? 109
6. Why did Hans react the way he did when Liesel states that she hates the Führer?
116
7. What is the importance of the setting of the above scene? 116
8. Discuss Hans’s “mistake.” What was it? When is it a mistake? When isn’t it? 118
9. Give some predictions and thoughts about “the shadow.” 122
Part Three:
1. What kind of secret might be stirring in Papa that Liesel may someday have to
keep? 127
2. Identify and explain some of the miscommunications during the interactions
between the mayor’s wife and Liesel. 132-137
3. Why do think the descriptions of the sounds of Max’s eating are so vivid? 140-141
4. What is the meaning behind the open window in the mayor’s library? 145-146
5. Discuss the excerpt, “She was a girl. In Nazi Germany. How fitting that she was
discovering the power of words.” 147
6. How is the description of Rudy as, “barely able to contain a grin. It ran across his
face like a skid,” a type of foreshadowing? 162
Part Four:
1. Explain when Death says “I’ve seen so many young men over the years who think
they’re running at other young men. They are not. They’re running at me.”
p.174-5
2. What is the deeper meaning of “Do you still play the accordion?” 184
3. What are some of Liesel’s sights, sounds, and thoughts on the night Max comes?
184-5
4. What can you compare the relationship between Walter and Max to? 190-194
5. On page 193, Walter says, “chaos is what we need.” Why? When is chaos
needed?
6. The idea Liesel unknowingly gave to Hans is revealed on page 195. What was his
plan?
7. “The reply floated from his mouth, then molded itself like a stain to the ceiling.”
p.200 What does this quote tell you about Max’s inner thoughts?
8. Discuss Han’s lecture to Liesel about Max? Can you compare it to anything? 202203
9. Explain the paradox, “Everything was good. But it was awful, too.” 204
10. Discuss Max’s feelings of guilt. 207
11. Compare the distractions Liesel finds in Rudy’s friendship with those in The Whistler.
213
12. Explain Max’s feelings toward Mein Kampf. 217
13. What are the commonalities between Liesel and Max? 220
14. What might Hans be feeling when Liesel says she is old enough to deal with her own
nightmares. 220
15. Explain the quote on page 223, “You can do all manner of underhanded nice things
when you have a caustic reputation.”
16. What themes and symbols can you identify in The Standover Man. 224-236
Part Five:
1. What secret about Rudy is reveal in the first chapter of this part? 241
2. What is Death’s reasoning behind giving you important information before it
happens? 243
3. Why might Liesel have extra interest in cutting Max’s hair? 244-245
4. Why would Max envision his fight with the Führer as an unfair one? 250-255
5. What are some of the things that only Max and Liesel are capable of fully
understanding and sharing with each other? Why is this so?
6. What explanation can you give for Liesel’s reaction to the mayor’s wife cancellation
of her laundry services? 262-264
7. What is the significance of the dead brother on the mayor’s steps? 262
8. Explain the scene when Liesel is looking for a Watschen in the kitchen? p. 264
9. What sorts of things are happening at Hitler Youth? 258-271
10. Compare and contrast Arthur Berg and Viktor Chemmel. 274-276
11. Remember our lesson on symbolism, explain Max’s sketches on pages 279 and 280.
12. What are some of the underlying motivations for Rudy and Liesel behind their acts
of stealing. 284
13. What might be the motivation behind Rudy’s stupidity? 293
14. We know the end of the floating book incident already. What is it still interesting to
read Part II? Why were we told the end first? 300-303
15. Why was the book that wasn’t food still a good thing for Rudy? 303
Part Six:
1. How does Death put a different spin on the events of WWII and the Holocaust that
we are already familiar with? 307-309
2. What is the irony of a snowball fight in the basement? 312
3. Explain the paradox on page 316.
4. How does Liesel leave Max intangible presents? 322
5. What sorts of emotions are mixed in wanting Max to live? 329
6. Explain the scene with the girls in Cologne. 337-338
7. How does the Nazi judgment of the Hubermann’s basement differ from their own?
345
8. Explain the line on page 350, “They were French, they were Jews, and they were
you.”
Part Seven:
1. How does Hans come about more painting work? Name some positive and
negative aspects of these jobs. 353-354
2. Discuss Rudy’s preparation for and performance in the Hitler Youth carnival. 359364
3. Discuss the non-Jewish basement; thoughts, motivations, actions. 372-376
4. How could a false alarm for the air raids be as bad as a real one? 379
5. Compare Liesel’s bomb shelter reading with the one she gave at school. 381
6. Describe the change in Frau Holtzapfel. 386-387
7. What concerns Hans about his feeding the marching Jew more than his whipping?
394-396
Part Eight:
1. What is the significance of the dominos in the scene where the 2 Nazis come for
Rudy? 408-410
2. Explain the 3 boys who “shivered like the future” on page 413.
3. Even though they are in the midst of war, Liesel and Rudy still exhibit some
conventional adolescent behaviors. What are some of them? 415
4. Why doesn’t Hans want to trust the “good” news from NSDAP. 417
5. Discuss the things the Hubermanns and Steiners say they are and are not
supposed to do? In what ways to they believe them? 418-419
6. This is Liesel’s second experience with a train station goodbye. Compare it to the
other event. 424-425
7. Describe Rudy’s attempt to kill the Führer. 426-428
8. We know that Hans survives his tour of duty before he begins it, so why is it still
difficult to read? 431-437
9. Explain Liesel’s mixed feelings as she watches the Jews march through town. 439
10.
What is similar about Rudy’s stealing food and his giving it to the Jews? 440
11. Identify symbols and meanings in The Word Shaker. 445
12. Why is the scene in the tailor shop more important than it appears on the surface?
454-455
Part Nine:
1. What idea changes Liesel’s idea about the mayor’s wife. 460
2. What literary device is used when Death says, “It kills me sometimes, how people
die” on page 464. What is the effect?
3. How is reading a book “good for something in the aftermath of the snows of
Stalingrad”? p. 471
4. What finally makes Liesel’s nightmares stop? 473
5. Why is “a broken leg…certainly something to celebrate”? p.479
6. Why might Rudy and Hans be asking the same bitter question? Who else asks this
question a bit later? 480
7. A teddy bear might be a weird inclusion in a toolbox, but what should it remind us
of? 482
8. Explain how the moment when Rudy and Liesel inspect the downed plane is both
ugly and beautiful. 490-491
Part Ten:
1. How is Liesel’s life literally saved by reading? 498
2. What is bitterly ironic about the dialogue of the old lady about the Jews: “They’re
a bad sign. Every time I see them, I know we’ll be ruined”? How might these
same words be interpreted differently if they had been spoken by Hans? 501
3. Explain the paradox of Michael Hotzapfel’s death. 502
4. What kind of internal conflict might Max be experiencing when he marches through
Molching and encounters Liesel? 509-512
5. How does Liesel use The Word Shaker during the march? 512-513
6. Discuss the significance of the scene between Rudy and Liesel on page 518.
7. Revisit the quote from our introduction: “The words. Why did they have to exist?
Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this.” Discuss any and all interpretations
of the “this.”
8. Discuss the important role the mayor’s wife served in Liesel’s life. 519-525
9. Explain the quote from page 532: “Those souls are always light because more of
them have been put out.”
10.
Why might have Liesel’s kissing Rudy “tasted like regret”? 536
Epilogue:
1. We are told about Liesel’s circumstances immediately after the bombing and the
very last stages of her life. How might one have led to the other? 543-544
2. Even though most of the “cast” has been killed in a bombing by the end of the
novel, why can we find hope in Max’s ironic survival. 548