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I noticed this on our YA shelf last week and wondered about that. It was hard to get into but very worth reading. I'm looking forward to the movie. It is NOT a book that most teens I know would read, but they will see the movie.
If you haven't read Markus Zusak's I Am The Messenger, please do so. It is like a punch in the gut! Very compelling, and a better choice for teens.
"Better choice" in what way? Although I'm not sure I'm generally in favor of recommending kids' books for adults.
"Better choice" in what way? Although I'm not sure I'm generally in favor of recommending kids' books for adults.
Are there police for this? I'm in favor of recommending the right book for the right reader. Some books are written for a particular audience and promoted for a different audience by the publisher. Many books identified as 'kids' books should be read by adults...we often get things out of the book that kids won't and vice versa. Doesn't mean they aren't worthwhile for either group. Haven't you ever re-read an old childhood favorite and gotten an entirely different experience from it?
Better Choice because I am the Messenger is:
Easier to get into, the action rises much more quickly. I'm not sure that a lot of teens would have the patience for the beginning (it took me a while, and I'm an experienced reader!)
Has a dark humor to it that teens will appreciate more
The action is Of much more interest to males and they are a very underserved audience in the YA section
It made me gasp out loud more than once (not so, the Book Thief)
Shorter
Excellent moral message that is simpler to comprehend than the Book Thief.
Don't get me wrong, The Book Thief is an excellent book and very worthwhile. Both are masterfully written. But I read them both several years ago and IMTM is far more memorable for me.
I don't think it was intended to be a children's or YA book. It just happened to get picked up on a lot of public school reading lists, so it acquired a YA designation.
To me, the content is totally appropriate for teens, but the format and style may be hard to grasp for younger brains, even most teens brains. It's not a story told in a straightforward way. It's narrated by Death, and told from his point of view about his observations of this little girl who lived through WWII in Germany. The whole setup/format of the book, from what I remember, corresponds to the collection of books referred to in the story, including a "book" created by a Jew who was being hidden from the Nazis.
So the book in your hand is actually an abstract symbol of the various books the girls encounters throughout the story. So there are many layers. Not something the average 14 year old will grasp. I was in advance/gifted classes at that age, but I even remember getting frustrated at stories that were not straightforward and more concrete. Adolescent brains are only beginning to fully grasp abstraction as they develop formal operational thought. Many adults still have difficulty with this even in adulthood.
The "disturbing" stuff doesn't seem too mature in my eyes--I would expect kids over 12 to learn about WWII, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust. The violence and killing are not really beyond what we see on TV, movies and video games. The "mature" aspect is the format and style of the book.
No thanks. I don't need another black-hat-white-hat nazi-bashing extravaganza that goes on for over 500 pages of high-school level prose and platitudes (I read a couple of sample pages on Amazon). And I am disinclined to go to a Young Reader edition as source material for historical authenticity.
This is not to discourage anyone else from reading it, just an explanation of why I'm not going to read it. Every book deserves criticism, which should not be denied because of the PC police.
No thanks. I don't need another black-hat-white-hat nazi-bashing extravaganza that goes on for over 500 pages of high-school level prose and platitudes (I read a couple of sample pages on Amazon). And I am disinclined to go to a Young Reader edition as source material for historical authenticity.
This is not to discourage anyone else from reading it, just an explanation of why I'm not going to read it. Every book deserves criticism, which should not be denied because of the PC police.
This book is definitely not black and white. It shows how a lot of Germans lived during the war, how people were conflicted about being involved in the Nazi party (or not), and the bombings, done by us Allies were portrayed as pretty horrific too. The book doesn't forget that Nazi atrocities happened, but it does pretty fairly show how war is terrible for all involved, especially ordinary people trying to live their lives.
I found no platitudes anywhere in the story.
And like I said early, it's definitely not written as a high-school level book. The language is easily understood, but the many layers and symbolism are a little much for the average teen. But you've already made your decision it seems. Also, as I stated earlier, it was not intended to be a YA book; it just picked up that designation when lots of schools added it to reading lists.
No thanks. I don't need another black-hat-white-hat nazi-bashing extravaganza that goes on for over 500 pages of high-school level prose and platitudes (I read a couple of sample pages on Amazon). And I am disinclined to go to a Young Reader edition as source material for historical authenticity.
This is not to discourage anyone else from reading it, just an explanation of why I'm not going to read it. Every book deserves criticism, which should not be denied because of the PC police.
You should really give the book a chance before you criticize it -- not that The Book Thief is without criticism, but because the very thing you are criticizing isn't true. None of the characters exhibit black and white attitudes or actions -- not even Death, and you think he'd be pretty one sided. That's perhaps one of the concepts in this book that young readers wouldn't be able to understand; a person can inwardly be good while needing to do things that would normally be considered wrong, but the wrongdoing was for the right reasons. Or a person can be inwardly bad, do bad things, and then go on to be praised and rewarded. Or you can be inwardly good, do the right thing, be punished for it and then be viewed as a dangerous person to be associated with.
As has been said, this book is definitely not a children's book. High school and up, and even then some readers may not grasp the finer points. The narrator, Death, had a very abstract way of describing points in time. It also took some critical thinking to connect the dots on some things -- things that may well go past young readers' heads. Like TracySam said, there are layers to this novel.
The movie trailer looks excellent, but much different than what I pictured (isn't it always?). I always imagined Liesel's home to be much more stark/less decorated and I imagined Max to be an exact replica of a long haired Adrien Brody. I hope the movie plot stays faithful to the book as much as possible, because it is a really beautiful, sad, wonderful thing. I couldn't get through the book without sobbing, so I'm going to wait for this one to come out online.
I read excerpts of it on Amazon, and quite honestly, I thought it read like Sherman Alexie, which I gave five pages and ran back to the library with it. It reads like a transcript of a high school student telling a story ad-lib, and there is too much good writing going around for me to spend my time reading any thing like that.
And I don't need to read any more nazi-bashing books, there are way, way too many of them, and they all tell the story from the same perspective, which is the only perspective that has any chance of ever getting published..
The Book Thief was published eight years ago, and suddenly, now that it released as a movie, it becomes a "must read". I smell a pattern there. Books that are ignored (sometimes rightfully) until the Hollywood promotion machine starts driving them, and everybody magically discovers that they are "good". .
I read excerpts of it on Amazon, and quite honestly, I thought it read like Sherman Alexie, which I gave five pages and ran back to the library with it. It reads like a transcript of a high school student telling a story ad-lib, and there is too much good writing going around for me to spend my time reading any thing like that.
And I don't need to read any more nazi-bashing books, there are way, way too many of them, and they all tell the story from the same perspective, which is the only perspective that has any chance of ever getting published..
The Book Thief was published eight years ago, and suddenly, now that it released as a movie, it becomes a "must read". I smell a pattern there. Books that are ignored (sometimes rightfully) until the Hollywood promotion machine starts driving them, and everybody magically discovers that they are "good". .
Whether you read it or not is up to you and you're entitled to your opinions, but I have to agree that I don't think you should be this critical of a book you have not read. Reading excerpts does not qualify this much criticism in my opinion. I think this book was considered a "must read" before Hollywood got its hands on it. I also personally believe Hollywood making a movie out of it takes away from how precious this book really is. When I read it, I was skeptical when I first began that I would even like it let only love it. But if you feel it's not worth your time, fine, don't read it. But save the harsh criticism for books you actually have read. Your criticism of those books would be appreciated and accepted, even if not a shared opinion.
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