English B60
Fall 2015
The Book Thief Reading Guide
Response Questions
Vocabulary Terms
PROLOGUE
Death and Chocolate
1. Who is the narrator of the story? How can you tell?
2. What does he mean when he says, “I’m nothing if not fair”?
3. Why is so much emphasis put on color? For example, “I
vacation in increments”?
4. Who is the book thief?
Beside the Railway Line
1. What does the narrator mean when he says, “I am a result”
(6)?
2. The narrator says, “I had already made the most elementary
of mistakes” (7). What does he mean?
The Eclipse
1. What is the eclipse the narrator refers to?
The Flag
1. Why, according to the narrator, does he keep the book?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Hindered (3)
Amiable (3)
Genially (4)
Spectrum (4)
Multitude (4)
Intonations (4)
Alluding to (4)
Increments (5)
Perpetual (5)
1. Malicious (6)
2. Abhorrence (7)
3. Resigned (7)
1. Versatility (9)
2. Trepidation
(10)
3. Concoction (10)
4. Disjointed (10)
5. Shrouded (11)
6. Grapple (11)
1. Ruptured (12)
2. Scorched (13)
3. Hindsight (13)
4. Mangled (13)
5. Compelled (14)
6. Intersect (14)
7. Marvel (14)
8. Spectated (14)
9. Resonate (14)
10. Septic (14)
11. Array (14)
12. Legion (14)
13. Immense (15)
PART ONE
Arrival on Himmel Street
1. What is the book thief’s name?
2. Where are Liesel, Werner, and their mother going on the
train?
3. How does the narrator first meet the book thief?
4. The narrator says, ‘A pair of train guards. A pair of grave
diggers. When it came down to it, one of them called the
shots. The other did what he was told. The question is, what
if the other is a lot more than one?” (23). What does he mean
by this?
5. How does the book thief get the book?
6. What does “Himmel” translate to? (26)
7. What kind of woman is Liesel’s new foster mother?
8. What book did Liesel steal?
Grousing up a Saumensch
1. How does Liesel get her books?
2. What color are Liesel’s eyes?
3. The narrator says, “There was really only one thing she knew
about her father” (31). What was that?
4. How does Liesel’s foster father treat her?
1. Flanked (19)
2. Corroded (20)
3. Contentedly
(20)
4. Frequented (21)
5. Extracted (21)
6. Onslaught (21)
7. Distraught (21)
8. Unsavory (22)
9. Trundle (23)
10. Heed (23)
11. Innocuously
(23)
12. Lodged (24)
13. Vacated (24)
14. Stature (25)
15. Echelons (25)
16. Vulnerable (25)
17. Disposition (26)
18. Enviable (26)
19. Futile (27)
20. Smoldering
(27)
21. Trudged (28)
22. Gingerly (28)
23. Illustrious (29)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Saumensch (30)
Hasten (30)
Hiatus (30)
Predominantly
(30)
Precise (30)
Eventuated (32)
Adequate (32)
Vehement (32)
Prolific (32)
10. Castigate (32)
11. Berate (32)
12. Deluge (33)
13. Fray (33)
14. Misleadence
(34)
15. Stupefying 934)
16. Ponderous (34)
17. Callous (34)
The Woman with the Iron Fist
1. Why is The Grave Digger’s Handbook important to Liesel?
2. What is the Hitler Youth? What do they do?
3. What does Rosa Hubermann do for a living? What does
Hans Hubermann do?
The Kiss
1. Who is Rudy Steiner?
2. What is the kids’ “favorite pastime” (47)?
3. What is Frau Diller’s golden rule?
4. What is “the road of yellow stars” (59)?
5. Who is Pfiffikus?
1. Accumulated
(36)
2. Primiarily (36)
3. Auspicious (39)
4. Raucous (41)
5. Schimpfen (41)
6. G’schtinkerdt
(41)
7. Lechery (42)
8. Louse (42)
9. Scrutinized (42)
10. G’sindel (42)
11. Disdain (42)
12. Arschlock (43)
13. Hostility (44)
14. Spiteful (44)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Vulgarity (46)
Staunch (46)
Infamous (47)
Deflected (48)
Misogynistic
(48)
6. Audacious (489)
7. Nefarious (49)
8. Administered
(50)
9. Strewn (50)
10. Lacerated (57)
11. Lepers (57)
12. Simultaneously
(52)
13. Ferocity (52)
14. Duplicate (53)
15. Serenity (53)
16. Geh’schelssen
(53)
17. Deteriorated
(53)
18. Goaded (53)
The Jesse Owens Incident
1. Who is Jesse Owens?
2. What are “the contradictory politics of Alex Steiner”? Why
are they contradictory? Do you think Alex Steiner is like
other people at that time? How so?
3. Why is Mr. Steiner upset about the Jesse Owens incident?
The Other Side of Sandpaper
1. How does Hans Hubermann discover the book?
2. What is “the midnight class”?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Touted (56)
Feat (56)
Maniacally (57)
Abducted (57)
Regimen (57)
Commentated
(57)
7. Materialize (57)
8. Shrill (57)
9. Uproarious (57)
10. Disheveled (58)
11. Conceded (580)
12. Implicit (58)
13. Deprivation
(59)
14. Contaminating
(59)
15. Relinquished
(61)
16. Prelude (61)
1. Culmination
(62)
2. Rendition (62)
3. Spurred (62)
4. Submissively
(63)
5. Hurtling (64)
6. Timidly (64)
7. Elated (65)
8. Alight (65)
9. Luminary (65)
10. Amplified (66)
11. Morbidity (66)
12. Vital (66)
13. Primitive (67)
The Smell of Friendship
1. According to Liesel, what does friendship smell like?
The Heavyweight Champion of the School Yard
1. What two things happened at the end of the summer of
1939?
2. Why does Liesel beat up Ludwig Schmeikl?
PART TWO
A Girl Made of Darkness
1. The narrator says Nazi Germany was built because “the
Germans…loved one particular activity”. What was that?
1. Cynicism (69)
2. Perplexed (71)
3. Dispensed (72)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Discarded (74)
Elevated (75)
Watschen (75)
Capability (75)
Mediocre (76)
Melancholic
(76)
7. Lamented (76)
8. Defiance (76)
9. Fluency (77)
10. Smugness (78)
11. Seethe (78)
12. Vicinity (78)
13. Obliterated (78)
14. Utterly (78)
15. Gravitating (79)
16. Absurdity (79)
17. Resumed (79)
18. Brunt (79)
19. Culmination
(80)
20. Demolition (80)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Flippant (83)
Apprehend (83)
Crux (83)
Venue (83)
Anti-Semitisim
(84)
6. Overzealous
984)
7. Bigots (84)
8. Synagogues
(84)
9. Reischstags
(84)
10. Slain (84)
11. Attained (85)
12. Culmination
(85)
The Joy of Cigarettes
1. What are Liesel’s 3 keys to happiness?
2. Where does Hans get the money to pay for Liesel’s
Christmas presents?
The Town Walker
1. Why does Rosa send Liesel to return the laundry?
Dead Letters
1. Why does Liesel take some of Rosa’s laundry money?
Hitler’s Birthday, 1940
1. What do Hans and Hans junior fight about over dinner?
2. Do you think Hans is a coward? Why or why not?
3. What happens to Hans junior?
1. Awash (86)
2. Succumbing
(86)
3. Funerary (87)
4. Deterrent (88)
5. Unfurling (88)
6. Adhering (89)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Castigated (91)
Agitation (92)
Serenity (93)
Amiably (94)
Schmunze (95)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Gait (99)
Animosity (99)
Vaguely (100)
Perplexity (100)
1. Persisted (101)
2. Commemorate
(102)
3. Propaganda
(102)
4. Ransacked
(102)
5. Incinerate (102)
6. Calamity (103)
7. Comprehensivel
y (103)
8. Transgressor
(104)
9. Fixated (105)
10. Futility (105)
11. Hurtle (106)\
100 Percent Pure German Sweat
1. What event is being celebrated in this chapter?
The Gates of Thievery
1. What happened to Liesel’s biological mother?
2. Why does Hans react the way he does when Liesel says, “I
hate the Fuhrer” (116)?
Book of Fire
1. From where does Liesel steal her second book? Why does
she steal it?
1. Explicit (108)
2. Discrepancy
(108)
3. Disperse (108)
4. Dowsed (109)
5. Grotesque (109)
6. Miraculously
(109)
7. Kinetic (109)
8. Bewildered
(109)
9. Consummate
(110)
10. Vigilant (110)
11. Machinations
(110)
12. Deplorable
(110)
13. Pivoted (111)
14. Accomplice
(111)
15. Culpability
(111)
16. Jocular (111)
17. Ominous (112)
18. Melee (112)
1. Dilapidated
(114)
2. Contemplating
(116)
3. Dilemmas (116)
4. Rendered (116)
5. Resolve (116)
6. Compliance
(116)
7. Stealth (117)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Ignition (119)
Exulting (119)
Ghastly (120)
Silhouettes
(121)
5. Stupendous
(122)
6. Precarious
(122)
PART THREE
The Way Home
1. What was “the third book of great importance to reach
Liesel” (125)?
2. “He [Hans} will never be approved [to join the Nazi party]
even if he buys a hundred copies of Mein Kampf” (128).
Why is that?
The Mayor’s Library
1. Why is Liesel afraid to deliver the laundry to the mayor’s
house?
2. Why do you think the mayor’s wife invites Liesel in to see
the books?
1. Obligatory
(125)
2. Sheepishly
(125)
3. Sufficiently
(125)
4. Irrefutable
(126)
5. Fretted (126)
6. Brandished
(126)
7. Volatile (127)
8. Affability (128)
1. Magnitude
(129)
2. Oblivious (129)
3. Distort (129)
4. Envision (129)
5. Skeptical (130)
6. Loitering (130)
7. Manhandle
(130)
8. Accustomed
(131)
9. Reproach 9132)
10. Benign (133)
11. Frail (133)
12. Steadfastness
(133)
13. Lure (134)
14. Immaculate
(134)
15. Vacant (134)
16. Tampered (135)
17. Fleeting (136)
18. Revelation
(136)
19. Sedated (136)
20. Rebuke (136)
21. Indecision
(137)
Enter the Struggler
1. Who do you think Max is? What is he doing? What is his
connection to Hans?
The Attributes of Summer
1. Why was the Shoulder Shrug a banned book?
2. Who is Johann Hermann?
3. What pushes Liesel and Rudy into thievery?
1. Meek (141)
1. Protagonist
(143)
2. Despondently
(143)
3. Attribute (143)
4. Exemplify
(143)
5. Inquiry (145)
6. Brigade (146)
7. Succumbed
(146)
8. Indulged (146)
9. Self-mutilation
(146)
10. Bungling (146)
11. Verred (146)
12. Sustain (146)
13. Elapsed (147)
14. Innate (147)
15. Counterparts
(150)
16. Transcends
(151)
17. Richtig (152)
18. Debutant (152)
19. Consumed
(153)
20. Respective
(153)
21. Relish (153)
22. Compulsive
(153)
23. Unaccustomed
(153)
24. Luxury (153)
The Aryan Shopkeeper
1. How do Liesel and Rudy get their candy?
The Struggler Continued
1. How does Hans attempt to save Max?
Tricksters
1. How do Liesel and Rudy steal the food from Otto Sturm?
2. How is Rudy almost caught stealing potatoes?
The Struggler, Concluded
1. Where do you think Max is going?
1. Pfennig (155)
2. Contempt (155)
1. Withstand (159)
2. Congregations
(160)
1. Havoc (161)
2. Repertoire
(161)
3. Keine Abhung
(163)
4. Scheisskipf
(163)
5. Impoverished
(163)
6. Conglomerate
(163)
7. Aptitude (164)
8. Contradictory
(164)
9. Aloft (165)
10. Instinctively
(165)
11. Reefed (165)
12. Futile (166)
13. Proffer (166)
1. Secretion (169)
PART FOUR
The Accordionist (The Secret Life of Hans Hubermann)
1. The narrator 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” (124-5). What does he
mean?
1. Appalled (173)
2. Fathom (174)
3. Vicinity (174)
4. Malignant (175)
5. Eccentric (176)
6. Vigilant (176)
7. Apex (177)
8. Superb (177)
9. Gangly (178)
10. Rheumatism
(178)
11. Devastated
(179)
12. Compensation
(179)
13. Vigorously
(179)
14. Antagonized
(180)
15. Hemispheric
(180)
16. Girth (180)
17. Tapered (181)
18. Morose (181)
19. Revoke (183)
20. Endorsed (183)
21. Competent
(183)
22. Ostracism (183)
A Good Girl
1. Why does Max ask Hans, “Do you still play the accordion?”
What does he really want to know?
A Short History of the Jewish Fist Fighter
1. Why is Hans helping Max?
1. Ludicrous (185)
2. Decipher (186)
1. Trounced (188)
2. Capitulate (188)
3. Disgruntled
(188)
4. Archetypal
(189)
5. Vitality (190)
6. Proffered (191)
7. Sporadically
(192)
8. Apprehension
(192)
9. Gusto (193)
10. Inconspicuously
(194)
11. Condemnation
(196)
The Wrath of Rosa
1. What makes Max sick?
1. Tirade (197)
2. Excruciating
(197)
3. Persecution
(197)
4. Declined (198)
5. Morose (198)
Liesel’s Lecture
1. Why is Hans so stern with Liesel about keeping Max a
secret?
1. Predicament
(199)
2. Iridescent (199)
3. Opaque (200)
4. Dormant (201)
5. Bemused (201)
6. Inaugural (201)
7. Abstinence
(201)
8. Loomed (202)
9. Placidity (203)
10. Compliance
(203)
11. Immutable
(203)
12. Callous (203)
13. Pensive (204)
The Sleeper
1. How long does Max sleep?
The Swapping of Nightmares
1. Why is Rosa “a good woman for a crisis”? (211)
2. What is the name of the book Liesel “could not put down”?
3. Why is Max so apologetic?
1. Mortifying
(205)
2. Agitation (206)
3. Disorientation
(206)
4. Fragmented
(206)
1. Affliction (207)
2. Fabricated
(208)
3. Excrement
4. What book does Liesel get for her 12th birthday?
Pages from the Basement
1. What does Max give Liesel for her birthday?
PART FIVE
The Floating Book
1. How does Rudy die?
(209)
4. Prudently (210)
5. Descent (210)
6. Imperative
(211)
7. Beleaguered
(211)
8. Notorious (211)
9. Ventured (212)
10. Sadistic (212)
11. Resonate (212)
12. Deteriorating
(213)
13. Hiatus (213)
14. Trepidation
(214)
15. Emaciated
(214)
16. Ominous (215)
17. Demeanor
(216)
18. Ruinous (216)
19. Selfdepreciation
(217)
20. Desolation
(221)
21. Devastated
(218)
22. Distinction (221
23. Gesture (221)
24. Blatant (221)
25. Pondering (222)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Caustic (238)
Allocated (238)
Vacant (238)
Gratified (238)
1. Preemptively
(241)
The Gamblers (A Seven-Sided Die)
1. Who cuts Max’s hair?
2. Why does Liesel bring Max the newspaper?
3. What is the significance of the fight Max imagines between
himself and Hitler?
4. What are the seven sides of the die?
5. Why does the mayor stop sending his laundry to Rosa?
6. Why does Liesel think she is going to hell?
Rudy’s Youth
1. What were the three elements of Rudy’s problems at the
Hitler Youth?
2. Who is Franz Deutscher?
3. Why can’t Tommy Muller keep up with the other members
in his Hitler Youth group?
The Losers
1. Who are the losers?
1. Machination
(243)
2. Perplex (243)
3. Audible (244)
4. Gratuitous
(246)
5. Frugal (248)
6. Malice (250)
7. Envisaged
(250)
8. Neutralized
(251)
9. Vociferously
(251)
10. Depleted (253)
11. Plethora (253)
12. Sinister (254)
13. Infesting (254)
14. Elapse (253)
15. Periphery (256)
16. Rebounding
(257)
17. Dissipated
(257)
18. Loathsome
(258)
19. Debilitate (259)
20. Fruition (259)
21. Diplomatically
(261)
1. Pendulum (267)
2. Litany (269)
3. Buoyantly
(271)
4. Forlornly (271)
1. Delinquent
(272)
2. Fumigated
(273)
3. Rhetoric (273)
4. Charisma (273)
5. Deviants (273)
6. Concerted (274)
7. Microcosm
(274)
8. Evoked (276)
Sketches
1. Describe Max’s sketches. What do they mean?
The Whistler and the Shoes
1. What do Rudy and Liesel steal from the mayor’s house?
Three Acts of Stupidity by Rudy Steiner
1. What are the three acts of stupidity by Rudy Steiner?
The Floating Book (Part II)
1. How does The Whistler end up in the river?
PART SIX
Death’s Diary: 1942
1. The narrator says, “They say that war is death’s best friend,
1. Exile (277)
2. Desecrated
(277)
1. Repugnant
(287)
2. Detested (288)
3. Nostalgia (288)
4. Incriminatingly
(290)
1. Accosted (294)
2. Inquiring (294)
3. Predominantly
(295)
4. Conferred (295)
5. Epitome (295)
6. Idyllic (295)
7. Ejaculated
(295)
8. Incentive (297)
9. Exhilarating
(297)
10. Leered (297)
11. Cohorts (299)
12. Dispersed (299)
1. Loping (300)
2. Agitated (301)
3. Deciphered
(301)
1. Scythe (307)
2. Repercussion
s(308)
3. Unwavering
but I must offer you a different point of view” (309). What is
his point of view?
The Snowman
1. How dies Max get sick?
Thirteen Presents
1. How does Liesel attempt to give Max the cloud she sees?
Fresh Air, an Old Nightmare, and What to do with a Jewish Corpse
1. Why are Hans and Rosa so worried about Max dying? How
will it impact them?
2. Why does Rosa come to Liesel’s school?
(309)
4. Incessantly
(309)
5. Alluded (310)
1. Distorted (314)
2. Unfounded
(315)
3. Enduring (316)
4. Adamant (316)
5. Paradox (316)
1. Resurgence
(318)
2. Serenity (318)
3. Predominantly
(318)
4. Irreparable
(320)
5. Collage (322)
6. Vigil (322)
7. Incredulous
(324)
1. Serpentined
(326)
2. Antithesis (330)
3. Copiously (330)
4. Premonition
(331)
5. Sustained (331)
6. Proximity (332)
1. Ambled (336)
Death’s Diary: Cologne
1. Who does the narrator carry in his arms?
The Visitor
1. Why do the NSDAP decide to inspect everyone’s basement?
1. Smattering
(339)
2. Shemozzle
(342)
1. Desolation
(350)
The Schumunzeler
Death’s Diary: The Parisians
1. What event is the narrator describing?
PART SEVEN
Champagne and Accordions
1. What does Hans use champagne bottles for?
The Trilogy
1. Why is Rudy disqualified from the race?
2. How does Liesel get the dictionary?
1. Reprieve (353)
2. Intuition (357)
1. Nonplussed
(361)
2. Methodically
(367)
3. Transparent
(368)
4. Loathsome
(369)
1. Opus (376)
The Sound of Sirens
1. The narrator asks, “Did they deserve any better, these
people” as the Hubermanns are hiding in a bomb shelter.
What does he mean? Explain.
The Sky Stealer
1. How does Liesel calm the crowd gathered in the basement
during the air raid?
1. Feigning (380)
2. Nonchalance
(380)
3. Immutable
(382)
4. Apparitions
(383)
1. Inquired (386)
2. Regimented
(381)
Frau Holtzapfel’s Offer
1. Why does Frau Holtzapfel come to the Hubermann house?
The Long Walk to Dachau
1. What does Hans to as the Jewish prisoners make their way to
Dachau?
2. Why does Max leave?
1. Foreboding
(391)
2. Deciphered
(390)
3. Depleted (392)
4. Subdue (392)
5. Temerity (392)
6. Derision (394)
The Idiot and the Coat Men
1. Who is the idiot? Why?
PART EIGHT
1. Hankering
(399)
2. Vindication
(402)
1. Arid (409)
2. Cannier (410)
3. Disclosed (410)
Dominoes and Darkness
1. Why do the SS men come for Rudy?
The Thought of Rudy Naked
1. Why are the boys so scrutinized?
1. Nimble (412)
2. Manic (412)
3. Gargantuan
(412)
4. Marooned (413)
5. Abject (413)
1. Attaining (418)
2. Compulsory
(418)
Punishment
1. What is Hans’ punishment?
The Promise Keeper’s Wife
1. What is Hans’ punishment?
The Bread Eaters
1. What do Rudy and Liesel do to help the Jews as they pass
by?
The Hidden Sketchbook
1. Briefly summarize Max’s story of the wordshaker. What
does it mean?
1. Vital (426)
2. Subsided (435)
1. Miscreants
(439)
1. Solemnly (442)
2. Dais (444)
3. Admonished
(445)
4. Cultivated
(445)
5. Rampant (446)
The Anarchist’s Suit Collection
1. What is Liesel’s Christmas present to Rudy?
1. Protruded (460)
2. Peculiar (461)
PART NINE
The Next Temptation
1. What do Liesel and Rudy take from the mayor’s house?
The Cardplayer
1. Who is Reinhold Zucker?
The Shows of Stalingrad
1. Who is Michael Holtzapfel?
1. Dismal (466)
2. Exert (470)
1. Metronome
(473)
The Ageless Brother
1. When does Liesel imagine her brother with her? How does
he help her? What purpose does he serve?
The Accident
1. How does Hans break his leg?
The Bitter Taste of Questions
1. What are the questions Rudy asks?
1. Semblance
(480)
2. Unfurling (483)
3. Wrested (485)
One Toolbox, One Bleeder, One Bear
1. Why does Rudy keep a teddy bear in his toolbox?
2. Why won’t Frau Holtzapfel go to the shelter?
1. Blaspheme
(499)
Homecoming
1. When does Hans come home?
1. Pensive (500)
PART TEN
The End of the World (Part I)
1. Why does no one want to bomb Himmel street?
The Ninety-Eighth Day
1. Why does Michael kill himself?
1. Desecrated
(516)
2. How does Liesel survive the bombing?
1. Lustrous (523)
The War Maker
1. Where is Max?
Way of the Words
1. Why does Liesel get whipped?
Confessions
1. What does Liesel confess to Rudy?
Isla Hermann’s Little Black Book
1. Liesel says, “Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing.” What
does she mean?
The Rib-Cage Planes
1. What is Liesel writing? Why?
The End of the World (Part II)
1. How does Liesel’s family die?
EPILOGUE
Death and Liesel
1. When does Liesel die?
Wood in the Afternoon
1. Why won’t Liesel take a bath?
Max
1. Where are Max and Liesel reunited?
The Handover Man
1. What do you make of the last line of the novel?
1. Chlorinated
(526)