The first is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, stolen on January 13, 1939, the day Liesel’s brother dies, and the day she last sees her mother. It’s a metaphor being that death will stay with liesel forever and  The book burning scene is important to Liesel, but symbolically, it goes beyond her story. … For the Nazis, Jewish books symbolize Jewish people. The destruction of these books symbolized one of their goals: the destruction of the Jewish people. the Shoulder Shrug: Book of Fire. Uniformed men start shoveling away the bonfire’s remains. Liesel notices three books deep in the pile that haven’t burned. She pulls one out, The Shoulder Shrug. The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (the “DSt”) to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism.

“The Gravedigger’s Handbook” – Liesel takes this book from the snow, at her brother Werner’s funeral.

“The shoulder shrug” – Liesel rescues this book from the burning flames on Hitler’s birthday.

This is the second of many books Liesel steals from the fire. It discusses a jewish protagonist

Liesel is taking control,  when people have nothing at all they tend to hold on to everything,Survival mode.

“The Dream Carrier” – The text Liesel steals from Frau Hermann’s library.

Liesel steals another book from Isla’s libary called “The Dream Carrier”. The book was “red with black writing on the spine.” It is about an abandoned child who wants to become a priest – therefore it is symbolic of community, new beginnings, renaming. Liesel reads it to max when he was sleeping and awake. Liesel is afraid that Max will die. She feels he has replaced her brother so she feels guilty because she shouldn’t feel more for Max than her brother.  Liesel feels gulity as she built the snowman downstairs and now Max is ill. The book shows Max’s drive to survive. Liesel is a beacon of hope for survival.

At first Liesel avoids the mayor’s house because she suspects that the mayor’s wife saw her steal the book from the bonfire at the book burning. Rosa makes Liesel go there to deliver the washing, Frau hermann says nothing to her when she gets there. Liesel believes that the mayor’s wife hadn’t seen her take the book at the burning. Frau invites her to come inside the next week she came for the washing. Frau goes inside comes back to the door carrying a stack of books, and that intrigues Liesel. She takes Liesel to the library in side the house and Liesel is in awe of what she sees.

“A song in the dark” – The text Liesel steals from Frau Hermann’s library.

Liesel steals the book from frau hermann’s library and she purly picks the book, the moment it catches her eye. She picks the book for max, she brings the book home and reads it to max as he is dying and fighting for his life. Liesel reads to him in an attempt to wake him and fight against death itself or himself. “She thought of Max and his dreams. Of guilt. Surviving. Leaving his family. Fighting the Fuhrer. She also thought of her own dreams- Her brother dead on the train…”  It’s about “an abandoned child who wanted to be a priest.” We are also given a small snippet, “The young priest questions his faith after meeting an elegant woman.”

“The standover man” – Max’s publication gift to Liesel.The standover man is a book which symbolises the friendship between max and Liesel.written over the top of the book mein kampf a book about german war heritage the book is not only a story of their friendship but a story about how max ended up on Himmel street.the fact that the standover man was written over hitler’s book shows that their story is more important than hitler’s fantasy.

“Mein Kampf”- Hitler’s published philosophy, Max’s camouflage traveling to Molching, and the pages used for “The Standover Man”.