Thursday, July 16, 2009

EFJ Summer Reading List

In its continuing quest to provide suggestions for summer reading that contains Catholic Social Teaching (CST) themes, Education for Justice (EFJ) suggests The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The sanctity of human life and nonviolent resistance play a role in this work of literary fiction.

Book Description by EFJ: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a novel of cruelty, poverty, and hope. Liesel Meminger is a young girl who has been placed in foster care by her mother. Liesel's brother dies en route to their new home and this leaves Liesel traumatized, causing her to have terrible nightmares in the middle of the night. Liesel's foster father begins teaching her to read on these nights to distract her from her pain. Liesel learns to turn to books for comfort. When the war begins, comfort becomes a rare state of mind, so Liesel finds ways to seek it out. Liesel begins to steal books in her efforts to deal with the cruelty of the world around her. The Book Thief is a complicated story of survival that will encourage its readers to think.

No comments:

Post a Comment