Outside of a Dog » Reading http://outsideofadog.edublogs.org a book is man's best friend. Inside it's too dark to read. Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:52:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 New year new books http://outsideofadog.edublogs.org/2008/01/10/new-year-new-books/ http://outsideofadog.edublogs.org/2008/01/10/new-year-new-books/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:26:56 +0000 Barbara Pollock http://outsideofadog.edublogs.org/2008/01/10/new-year-new-books/ With our long Christmas break I had time to get my new year’s reading off to a good start. I found two great books on World War II each presenting a different view. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak is the story of Liesel Meminger narrated by “Death”. Liesel is nine years old and illiterate when the story begins, she has lost her family and is living with foster parents in a small town near Munich Germany. “Death” takes an interest in Liesel and even though he is extremely busy during the war years, what with all of the battles, bombings and concentration camps, he takes time to stop and see how she is doing. As the war progresses Liesel learns to read and begins to steal books. The first from her brothers grave in an unknown town, the second from a Nazi book burning. Her story is tragic and inspiring. A unique view of the war and its’ aftermath.

I also read Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosany. Sarah’s Key is the story of two families, Julia Jarmond an American lives in Paris in 2002 with her French husband and their daughter. Sarah is a 10 year Jewish girl living in Paris in 1942. As Julia, a reporter, investigates the round up of 14000 of Paris’s Jew by the French Police, the story flashes back to that night in July, 1942 when they came for Sarah’s family. Thinking they would only be gone a short time, Sarah locks her little brother Michel in a secret closet. Moving between the two stories, Julia’s mounting horror at the events, her family’s involvement in them and Sarah’s desperate attempt to rescue her brother, the novel builds to a horrific conclusion. After beginning this book I could not stop until I had finished. It is a disturbing picture of human behavior. To read more about this novel go the the Sarah’s Key blog.

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