Liesel's younger brother Werner dies suddenly on the train to Molching, leaving Liesel and her mother devastated at a rural station.

After her brother's burial, Liesel picks up a dropped gravedigger's handbook from the snow and hides it inside her coat.

Liesel reluctantly enters the Hubermann home on Himmel Street and meets her new foster parents, Hans and Rosa.

Hans discovers Liesel's stolen book and begins teaching her to read by tracing letters onto sheets of sandpaper.

After a public book-burning rally, Liesel rescues a still-smoldering book called The Shoulder Shrug from the dying bonfire.

The mayor's wife invites Liesel inside the mansion and reveals a large, book-filled library for her to use freely.

A gaunt and exhausted Max Vandenburg arrives at the Hubermann kitchen door, seeking the refuge Hans promised his father.

Hans takes Liesel to the basement and tells her Max is Jewish, demanding she keep his presence an absolute secret.

Max paints over Mein Kampf pages and creates a handmade picture book called The Standover Man as a birthday gift for Liesel.

Hans offers bread to a starving Jewish prisoner in a Dachau convoy and is publicly beaten by a guard.

Max slips away from the Hubermann home in the night, leaving a note telling Hans he has done enough.

Hans receives his draft notice and is ordered to report for military duty as punishment for helping a Jewish prisoner.

An unannounced air raid destroys Himmel Street while everyone sleeps; Liesel survives only because she is writing in the basement.

Liesel finds Rudy's body in the rubble of Himmel Street and kisses him for the first and only time.

Max walks into Alex Steiner's tailor shop searching for Liesel, and the two friends reunite with tears and embraces.

Liesel Meminger loses her brother on a train journey to Molching and is placed with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann, where her passion for stolen books slowly blossoms. Hans patiently teaches Liesel to read, and her world expands when the mayor's wife grants her access to a private library filled with books. The family's quiet life is transformed when they shelter Max Vandenburg, a Jewish man hiding from the Nazi regime, whose arrival deepens Liesel's understanding of the war closing in around her. A compassionate act by Hans—offering bread to a Jewish prisoner—forces Max to flee and leads to Hans being drafted into military service. The war reaches Himmel Street directly when an unannounced bombing raid kills everyone Liesel loves, sparing only her because she was writing her life story in the basement. Liesel's eventual reunion with Max and her long survival frame the entire arc of loss, courage, and the enduring power of words.

Liesel's journey from orphaned book thief to sole survivor of Himmel Street.

Rudy paints his skin black with charcoal and races around the neighborhood track in tribute to his hero Jesse Owens.

After classmates mock her reading in the schoolyard, Liesel beats a boy named Ludwig Schmeikel until the others leave her alone.

Hans trades cigarettes at a market to buy Liesel two books called Faust the Dog and The Lighthouse for Christmas.

Liesel writes a letter to her mother at school and mails several more over the following months, but receives no reply.

Hans Junior visits on Hitler's birthday, accuses his father of cowardice for not joining the Nazi Party, and storms out.

Liesel and Rudy join Arthur Berg's gang of local thieves and successfully rob a nearby apple orchard of fruit.

Liesel and Rudy freeze water on a patch of pavement, causing a classmate's bike to crash so they can steal his food basket.

Max catches a chill after the Christmas Eve basement snowman melts and falls into a dangerously unresponsive illness.

Liesel reads The Whistler aloud to the unconscious Max and brings him thirteen small gifts in an effort to help him recover.

A Nazi inspector arrives to evaluate Himmel Street basements as air raid shelters while Max hides silently behind a drop cloth.

Rudy wins three gold medals at a Hitler Youth carnival and deliberately causes a false start to disqualify himself from the fourth race.

Frau Hermann leaves a Duden Dictionary in her open library window with a note inside inviting Liesel to return through the front door.

Frau Holtzapfel ends her feud with Rosa and offers her coffee ration in exchange for Liesel reading The Whistler aloud to her.

Unable to bear the guilt of surviving Stalingrad while his brother died, Michael Holtzapfel hangs himself on Himmel Street.

After the bombing, Liesel is taken in by the mayor and Frau Hermann and attends the funerals of her family and Rudy.

While war reshapes Germany, the children and residents of Himmel Street carve out moments of mischief, friendship, and defiance against gathering hardship. Rudy and Liesel steal food to survive, write letters that go unanswered, and watch their families fracture under the mounting pressure of Nazi demands. Max's near-fatal illness tests the entire Hubermann household, and Liesel discovers the restorative power of reading both to herself and to the frightened people sheltering around her. As the war intensifies, Nazi officials pursue the children on the street for their own purposes, and both Hans and Alex Steiner are drafted as punishment for refusing to comply with the regime. Small acts of compassion—bread thrown to prisoners, medals deliberately surrendered—reveal the moral courage hiding beneath the surface of ordinary wartime life. When the bombs finally fall, the survivors must rebuild entirely from grief, and Liesel finds a fragile new home with the Hermanns.

The daily struggles and small rebellions that shaped life on Himmel Street.

Hans comes into Liesel's room at two in the morning to comfort her after each recurring nightmare about her dead brother.

When Liesel declares she hates Hitler after the book burning, Hans slaps her and warns her never to say it publicly again.

Hans buys a copy of Mein Kampf and secretly uses it to conceal a map and key destined for Max Vandenburg in Stuttgart.

Max travels by train to Molching carrying Hans's copy of Mein Kampf to appear loyal to the Nazi cause if stopped.

Rosa silently offers Max a bowl of soup on the night of his arrival, revealing a compassion that stuns Liesel completely.

Liesel and Max discover they share the same nightmares, and Hans begins playing the accordion at home to protect Max's crumbling sanity.

Max tears out the remaining pages of Mein Kampf, whitewashes them, and crafts a new illustrated storybook called The Word Shaker.

Viktor Chemmel throws Liesel's copy of The Whistler into the river, and Rudy dives into the freezing water to retrieve it.

Nazi officers visit the Steiners to recruit Rudy for a special elite school, but his parents flatly refuse to hand him over.

After Hans is drafted and leaves home, Rosa falls asleep sitting upright on the bed with her husband's accordion strapped to her chest.

Liesel and Rudy secretly throw pieces of bread to starving Jewish prisoners being marched through the streets of Molching.

Liesel spots Max among prisoners marching toward Dachau, runs to him in the crowd, and both are whipped by guards.

Overwhelmed by despair after losing Max, Liesel tears a book apart inside Frau Hermann's library and vows never to return.

Frau Hermann arrives at Liesel's door with a blank bound notebook and urges her to stop reading and start writing her own story.

Death finally comes to collect Liesel's soul in old age, shows her The Book Thief he kept all those years, and confesses he is haunted by humans.

From Hans's midnight comfort during Liesel's nightmares to his dangerous decision to smuggle a hidden message inside a copy of Mein Kampf, small choices ripple outward and determine who lives and who dies. Max's arrival transforms the Hubermann household, and his bond with Liesel—forged over shared nightmares and a deep love of words—produces two remarkable handmade books that speak hope directly into the face of hatred. Moments of unexpected grace, from Rosa's quiet offer of soup to Rudy's plunge into a freezing river, reveal hidden depths beneath familiar characters. As the Nazi regime tightens its grip, the family faces escalating threats: Rudy is targeted for elite recruitment, Hans is drafted, and Max is marched off to Dachau in full view of a helpless Liesel. Liesel's faith in words collapses and is then painfully rebuilt through Frau Hermann's gift of a blank notebook, completing her transformation from reader into writer. The pool ends where the entire story ends—with Death returning Liesel's book to her at the close of her long life.

The hidden acts of courage, key discoveries, and emotional shifts that changed everything.

Markus Zusak

Novel

Fiction

Guide