Two people, days apart, gifted me the same book, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, so I figured I ought to read it. Since the book is categorized as young adult, I doubt I would have stumbled upon the title myself. Though I’m not sure anymore what constitutes YA. Yes, there’s no profanity in the book. I’m referring to only language now, the words we need to protect young people from. In actuality, young people don’t need much in this regard. Who we’re really protecting are the tender adults who believe their efforts will preserve a sanitized time that never existed in the first place other than in their warped imaginations and plugged memories. Yes, the main protagonist is a young girl, though other characters, including death himself, often take center stage. (I assume female readers won’t mind my assumption of death as male; that’s how I read it.) Other than that, and maybe the short chapters, I would not have known the book was meant as YA. The language is sophisticated; the descriptions are clear and often poetic; the struggles are real and moving. This is a beautiful book to be enjoyed by all ages.
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November 2019
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