The Book Thief - anyone?

[Feisty1]

?

[sfxmum]

it i my next book to read starting a soon as I finish my current book, should be by the weekend

[ArcticRoll]

I abandoned it halfway through.

[Feisty1]

I have started it, but read something else. The start is great if you know what you are reading.

[Feisty1]

Arctic, did you find it shite as well then. I feel guilty as I paid about 9.00 for it.

[sfxmum]

maybe it is just not your kind of book have you read that sort of book before?

[ArcticRoll]

My friend recommended it and said it was one of the best books she had read so I bought it in hardback but tbh couldn't really get into it.

[Feisty1]

Yes, but I didn't realise that it was narrated by death until I started reading and found it a bit confusing, then read the back, durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Feisty1]

Don't worry I will read it when I have nothing else to read, as I paid big pennies for it.

[Saturn74]

I thought it was one of the best books I have ever read.

[janeite]

I loved it.

[avenanap]

Shit. I didn't know this was for adults. My ds has read it. I didn't read it first, is it scary?

[PersephoneSnape]

how old is your ds? I've read it and passed it onto my 12 yo dd. I think it's actually a good book for children, it deals with nasty bits of history that children have to know about, but does it very well from a childs perspective

[MrsMuddle]

I started and couldn't get into it. It was the book for my book group last night - half loved it, and half hated it. I will try again, but a bit half-heartedly, I think.

avenanap - it's a crossover book, published with a teenage cover and an adult cover. DS (12) is reading it at the moment.

[HenriettaHippo]

I too thought it was one of the best books I've ever read. Second to A Thousand Splendid Suns.

[avenanap]

He's 8 (head held down in shame), he's a really good reader though. I gave him Bram Stokers Dracula last week until my friend told me to read the end (head even lower down in shame). I'm an awful mum! I've confiscated it now. He wants to read Lord of the Flies, done all Anthony Horowitz, Phillip Pullman, Harry Potter, Animal Farm (he liked this), Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (loved this), Star Wars, Horrible Hostories, Maths, Science.... I'm out of books. Any suggestions? Oh, he's read bits of shakespear aswell.

[PersephoneSnape]

aveanap, what a little reader! if you wanted to keep to the WW2, the boy in the striped pyjamas might be more appropriate. would he like lemony snickett? roald dahl? narnia? garth nix (particularly the 'days' septology)

I don't really think there was anything in the book thief that was horribly inappropriate - other than mass genocide and death in isolated incidences... - but it is portrayed sensitively, not graphically and it is so important for recent living history to be brought to our childrens attention. If your son is an avid reader, who questions what happens in books with you and you can guide his reading, then I wouldn't see it as hugely inappropriate - but only you can tell and I'd read it first...

[avenanap]

Done all of those. He's been reading since he was 3 so he's gone through quite alot of books. They have a point system at school, 1 point per page, he's managed 95,000 in 3.5 years. He's read anne frank, that's got lots of nasty stuff in it (?). He's a bit of a philosopher and likes to talk about human behaviour and hierarchy. I think it's good for children to see mistakes that people have made and how they affect others. I didn't think it was that graphic though, I should have read it first. I assumed it was Ok as it was in the childrens section. Doh!

[sarz]

Sorry to rehash this thread, but i have just started reading this and finding it quite hard to get into! I read The Kite runner and Thousand Splendid suns back to back and finished a couple of days ago in my head i am still in Taliban ruled Afganistan and its quite hard to jump to Nazi Germany!

[Psychomum5]

I was looking for this thread, so thanks for the re-hash.

I finished this book (finally!!!!!), on the weekend.

I was absolutely determined to read it, and I have to say I am glad I did.

It took me three wks, which is eternity for me book wise. To give some idea, I have read a whole book and am now half way tho another, since friday when I finished. I am a QUICK reader!.

I won;t deny it is an exhaustingly hard book to read, and in parts also quite painful. It is very hard to also garner sympathy for the german people after all the history lessons of childhood making us feel that they were so bad during the war.

and then, you remember that this book is fiction!!

What makes me recommend it tho.......it reduced me to a sobbing heap at the end, which is my way of realising that it is a book that holds me and makes me fall in love with the characters.

BUT

it is a book with 460 pages, and it was only during the last 100 that I fell in love with it.

[sarz]

great, so i am in for the long haul! Well i will try a bit more now, when i am done i will find you again! I am usually a quick reader to so hopefully in 3 weeks i will be done!!

[PABLOP]

I bought it today, looking forward to a good read.

[agennaro]

It did take me longer than normal to get into it and at one point considered not bothering to finish - I am so glad I did, at the end I was a quivering, crying, gasping heap and unlike with men I adore a book that can do that to me.
My mum was exactly the same.

[sfxmum]

am reading it now

[lljkk]

Book Thief is lots less disturbing or Adult theme than Animal Farm, avena. BT classed as teen fiction, I'd let my 8yo read BT but not Animal Farm.

[avenanap]

He's now reading 'Little Men'.