Happy 14th Birthday

Happy Birthday Catherine!

Today marks the completion of the fourteen wonderful years she has been a part of our family!
We love you!

I had thought I might write something about some famous person who shared this birthday, but I couldn't really find anyone, so there goes that idea... flying out the window.

How about the book I just finished instead.
I don't really feel like a review, but maybe I could do a mini one.




bBj had me start this while I was out of town with her. I just finished it today. I am not a fast reader, but I also got busy with other things.
     Anyway, I have to say it was very interesting. I always wanted to find out what would become of the characters. I liked so many of them, though they are all unique and not the kinds you would expect to love, but maybe that was why I liked them. They could've been real people.
     This book is set in the 1940s in Germany. The main character is 9 year old Leisel who has been brought to Molching Germany to live with her foster family the Hubermanns. The Hubermanns are very poor and Leisel has practically nothing. She meets the different people from Himmel Street, the poorest part of the city where she lives, and friendships gradually form. Leisel is illiterate and life is hard, but she learns to appreciate the value of words in unexpected ways.
     The story is told from the most interesting narrator I could possibly imagine; death. Also, it is told slightly out of order, which usually I would not like, (or I don't think I would) but here it works well. There are times where later events are hinted at or even shared, but in such a way that doesn't make you want to put down the book. I think it was a good choice and an easy way to begin to let the reader in on what is coming. And I really liked the way death was portrayed. Very different.
     There are great word pictures and the writing style is colorful and unusual. The characters swear regularly, typically in German - with a helpful translation right to the side... 0_o (great... thanks!)
     I did like the different emotions the book deals with as I suspect it would be rather impossible not to have those emotions during that time of history, especially if you were in Leisel's shoes. One of the sub-stories, if you will, had an interesting take on the war and how it began - another neat and thought provoking aspect. A main theme: the value of words. The book left me with things to think about, and I always like it when literature does that... much better than mindless amusement.

I hope it does not bother you that I typically stop these reviews rather abruptly. Well, I don't want to give anything away and with that said, I shall abruptly end now and probably do so again some other time.

Oh and a welcome to my latest follower Maria Elisabeth from Miss Georgiana Darcy!

~ A Song of Joy