The book Thief pg 1-100

I read the book Thief written by Mark Zusak

The Book Thief is written from the perspective of death. The main character is a young girl by the name of Liesel who happens to be referred to as the book thief. This story takes place in Nazi Germany  during and right before World War II when Hitler was gaining support. Liesel is put into a foster family after the death of her brother. Right before being brought to her home she steals her first book which makes her a book thief. Her foster mother is very cold and strict but Liesel is able to quickly form an inseparable bond with her father. Every night Lieel has the same nightmare and its her fathers job to come soothe her and bring her back to bed. It is during one of those sessions that they decide that they are going to use the stolen book to teach Liesel to read each night she wakes up. 

I felt that the beginning of the book was a bit slow. The first few chapters were just death talking about the significance of certain colors, and how he saw the book thief in all of these various situations. This was all done in fancy language without explicitly stating what was happening which confused me. While reading those first few chapters I questioned why on other Mark Zusak had chosen to include that in his book. However for the next part, except for the constant flashbacks, it was pure plot which was easily understandable. As far as the story goes it has been decently interesting though its a bit slow-going.   

Blog #1 Aislinn FDailey: The Hate U Give chapters 1-8

I have read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. For this first blog, I have read chapters 1-8. These chapters gave a very detailed explanation of the characters and the shooting of Khalil. The first character that we are introduced to is Starr Carter. Star is a teenage girl who lives in a town called Garden Heights. Starrs father named her Starr because she was a light in a time of darkness. Garden Heights is a relatively violent and poor part of town. Because her parents wanted the best for her, they send her to Williamson prep school. Williamson Prep school is where many of the more privileged, wealthy, and white children go to school. Because she goes to Williamson prep school she does not have as many friends in Garden Heights. One of the friends that she does have in Garden Heights is named Kenya. Kenya and Starr are close mostly because they share a half brother named seven. Starr and Kenya then attend a spring break party in Garden Heights but Starr feels out of place almost instantly. At the party, Starr runs into Khalil. Khalil is Starr’s childhood best friend. They meet up and she asks why she hasn't seen him and he says that he has been busy (which to Starr means that he has been dealing drugs). During the party, they hear gunshots and rush to Khalil's car. While driving home they reminisced about their childhood but their conversation is interrupted by police sirens. Khalil pulls over and the police officer tells them that he has a rear light out. Starr remembers the talk that her dad gave her about how to deal with police officers when you are black. By the way that Khalil talks to the police officer, she knew that his parents never gave him the talk. Khalil does not comply with the officers' directions and so the officer asks him to get out of the car. Khalil is searched and the officer warns both of the kids to stay still while he runs to his car. Khalil bends down to check on Starr and the officer shoots and kills Khalil.






During chapter 1 Starr is introduced as a thoughtful narrator. She is always thinking about how she can help other people. She is shown to think and react in her head before she does anything about the situation. She wants to make sure that what she does, does not affect anyone negatively. During these first chapters, we are introduced to the idea that Starr will no longer be able to be comfortable in Garden Heights because of going to Williamson prep. Because of this, when she gets to the party she starts to judge people that she used to go to school with,






Starr describes Khalil to have dimples that make him seem less tough. When she asks if he has been drug dealing those dimples immediately go away. This shows that Khalil does not want Starr to know he is drug dealing because he still sees her as a child. This brings the concept of how children in Garden Heights must take on the responsibility of adults. Khalil in a way represents Garden Heights because Starr has a conflicting feeling about Khalil the same way she does with Garden Heights.