The Book Thief

Narrated by Death, this novel follows Liesel Meminger, a young girl sent to live with a foster family outside Munich in Nazi Germany in 1939. Liesel learns to read with her foster father's help and begins stealing books, sharing them with neighbors during bombing raids and with the Jewish man hidden in her family's basement. The novel is a story about the power of words, the cruelty of war and small acts of courage.