Summer reading project post 1-The Book Thief

8/8/2014
          For my 10th grade summer reading project, I chose to read The Book Thief by: Markus Zusak. This book takes place during the holocaust in Germany where a little girl named Liesel Meminger, and her brother are being given up to a foster family in Munich, on a street called Himmel Street, which is odd because Himmel means heaven in English, but the neighborhood (and Germany at the time) was anything but heaven! However, on the train ride to Munich, Liesels brother becomes very ill, and dies in front of her eyes, which would lead to a haunting memory that would reoccur every night for years in her nightmares. After her brothers death she and her mother make a small funeral for him but have to quickly move on after Liesels mother drags her away from his grave, after Liesel secretly picks up a book on the ground near them as a small memory of her brother, ironically the book is titled "The Grave Diggers Handbook". Finally Liesel arrives at the foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, home, where she will be spending the next few years until she is off on her own.
          Hans is a very kind man who loves to play the accordion and helps Liesel a lot in adjusting to the new home, he loves to roll and smoke cigarettes and is a very caring person. Rosa is umm... well basically the exact opposite of Hans, she isnt very welcoming at all and has a very short temper, she yells at Liesel and Hans a lot and curses a lot. So far the only conflict I've managed to find in the book as far as I've read, is Liesel losing her brother and having to deal with those nightmares of his death every night, and her adjusting to a new home (mainly because of Rosa I would call this a conflict, read the book and you'll understand). Now after reading just this much of the book I have to ask a few questions, 1. Why is Rosa so mean? 2. Who is narrating the book? I'm sure the first question isn't that important but still, i'm curious about how someone can be like that. As for my second question i have a prediction on who it might be, i'm just assuming its the grim reaper because it says he has seen millions of people die, and more eclipses than he cares to remember.
          This book is pretty easy to connect to in the real world too, because of course the obvious one, the holocaust, and all the movies about the holocaust, and the families that have been affected by it.