The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a story about family. Liesel Meminger loses her first family, her brother dies, and her parents betray her. His second family are the Hubermanns, Hans and Rosa. Halfway through the story, Max Vandenburg also joins the family. Over the course of the story, Liesel trusts her family more and more and learns to read with Hans. He writes books with Max and also understands Rosa a little more. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the first chapter, Liesel steals her first book, The Gravedigger's Handbook. At first he doesn't know how to read it, but eventually he opens up to Hans and they read it together. Together they read, play the accordion and roll cigarettes for Hans to smoke. And even when Liesel goes to school, she still reads with Hans in the evenings. When Hans tires of rereading The Gravedigger's Handbook, he trades some of the cigarettes he and Liesel have rolled for more books to read. Hans is the one who picks up Liesel from her mandatory Hitler Youth programs, returning home with her to the silence he knows she needs. Hans is always there for Liesel, like a father and a friend. Max Vandenburg is the Jew who lives in the basement. When Liesel first meets him, she says his hair looks like feathers. Repeating his words as he works, Max takes the pages of Mein Kamphf and paints them with white paint before creating his own story to give to Liesel. He writes The Standover Man, talking about how his father was the first to watch him while he slept and now he was a girl. In the last few pages she writes about how Liesel said her hair looked like feathers and how she hopes they can be friends. He presents the book to Liesel as a birthday present and a friendship begins. Even Rosa Hubermann, who seems mean at first, becomes like family to Liesel. When Max gets sick, Liesel wants to sit and watch him while he sleeps to know when he will wake up. Rosa reminds Liesel that staying home from school would arouse suspicion, and Liesel reluctantly goes to school after Rosa promises to pick her up when Max wakes up. When Max wakes up, Rosa honors her promise to Liesel and gets her out of school by pretending to yell at her so she won't get suspicious. At the end of the book, Death says of Rosa “Make no mistake, that woman had a heart. He had a bigger heart than people might think. There was a lot of stuff in there, stored away, in many miles of hidden shelves... She was a Jew who fed herself without a question in the world on a man's first night in Molching. And she was able to reach her arm, deep into a mattress, to hand a sketchbook to a teenage girl. (Zusak 532) Keep in mind: This is just one example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay At the end of the book, a bomb is dropped on Himmelstrasse and the Hubermanns along with many of Liesel's friends are killed. Liesel survives, along with Max, and now has to deal with missing her family. This book tells the story of a girl who found her real family, before they were torn away from her. Even Death, the narrator of the story, seems to regret having taken Hans and Rosa away from Liesel.