Lit Circle Review: The Book Thief

After finishing the book, I can't help but say enough good things about it. I chose to read this book because of my interest in the Holocaust, and I am very pleased in this decision. I thought the book was beautifully written, and I would like to read others by this author. I loved the point of view that the book was written in, and how even someone like Death could be made to be such a likeable character.

We chose to set up our lit circle as a movie production. On the first day of the meetings, we talked about the different roles that needed to be involved in this kind of circle. Since there were so few of us in our group, we decided on the most important roles to creating the movie, and divided ourselves up to include these roles. I was in charge of drawing up the scenes that would be used in creating a movie from the book. I thought this was a great role for me, as I feel much more comfortable with creating something through art rather than through writing. I am much more confident in my abilities when I am able to take the time to create something through drawing, or photography, etc, rather than by writing a paper, and I feel like this is one reason why this kind of lit circle would work well in schools; It creates a variety of roles that students with a variety of abilities would be able to work well with. It offers the chance for all students to do well, even if they aren't comfortable with certain roles, by giving them other roles within their comfort zones.

During the second meeting, we shared everything that we had worked on. We talked about the importance of each piece that we brought in, and why we chose to focus on the things that we did, and choose the things that we did for this particular movie production. It was good to be able to talk to everyone about it, and show the information with everyone to be able to get more ideas from each other and to help us to all be on the same page as far as what we thought should go into this kind of production.

The third meeting involved mostly our talking about how much we enjoyed the book, and how much we thought it was a great selection for the assignment. In the end, there were some differing opinions about whether or not the book should be turned into a movie. I personally believe that it would be interesting to see how it would be put together into a movie, and in many ways, could see it happening. However I, along with others in the group, worry that this is a book that is so excellent, that a movie could never do it justice, and would never be able to measure up. But I am still so interested as to how they would portray the character of Death, and who would play his character. I wonder if he would be a voice, or a passer-by in the background, or an actual character that comes into view often in the movie. I think that is what I would most like to see in this ever becoming a movie.

All in all I really thought the book was spectacular, and I can see myself reading it again, unlike many stories I've read. It is a book that almost makes me wish that I would later be working with older students so that I would be able to use it in my own classroom, if not by just having it in my classroom library for students to pick up at their own leisure. I would definitely recommend it to others, and am glad that I was introduced to it.