Part 1 Chapters 3-8
In the third chapter, it first talked about the trauma Liesel was experiencing during night time. She would have nightmares of Werner, (her dead brother) and would wake up to her own screaming. However, it wasn't as bad since Hans would come in every night to soothe her, and make her feel safe. After crying into his sleeves, she would fall asleep once again to the smell of him, which she described as "a mixture of dead cigarettes, decades of paint, and human skin". Some nights, he would even play the accordion for her, where Rosa would be shouting at him for being so loud. Every morning, she would find him sleeping in the chair that sat in the corner of her room. Going back to the beginning of the story, she had still kept the "book" with her. She would keep it under the mattress of her bed, where some nights she would be staring at the letters on the cover and touching the print inside. Even though she couldn't read the words in the book, it held the memory of the last time she saw her brother and mother, which is what made the book so important. When it came to the evenings, it meant listening to Rosa argue and rant about literally anything. After dinner was done, Hans would take the accordion in his hand, head out the door, and not come back until two in the morning. After Hans leaving, Rosa would get back to her daily routine of ironing clothes, as she works as a washerwoman. Liesel would often be told to wipe the door, as Frau Holzapfel, one of their neighbors would spit on their door. The spitting was due to a decade-long verbal war, they had engaged in some way.
The fourth chapter is basically about meeting new people and making new friends from the people around her neighborhood. There is one particular person that Liesel becomes close with, Rudy. To explain some things about him, he is eight months older than her, lives right next door, has blue eyes, and hair the color of a lemon. People considered him to be a little crazy, since "the Jesse Owens incident", where he painted himself black and ran the 100 meters at the local playing field one night. (Jesse Owens is a black American athlete.) They first met at the field, where the kids on Himmel street would gather to play soccer. And no, it wasn't a good start. He ended up throwing a snowball in her face for deflecting his kick. But he gained her trust back just a few days later, by walking her to school and showing her around the streets at the same time. (Well, he was forced by his mom to do so, after hearing about him throwing a snowball in her face.) One afternoon, Rudy suggested that they race each other on a track, making a deal. Rudy wanted a kiss from her, and she wanted him to get her out of the "goalie" position when playing soccer. The results turned out to be a draw, and he didn't get his kiss but did agree to get her out of the goalie position.
The fifth chapter talked about the night the Jesse Owens incident took place. It starts off with the Steiner family in front of the tv, watching the Olympics, that was held in 1936 (three years before Liesel shows up). Jesse Owens had just completed the 4×100 relay race and won his fourth gold medal. Watching the scene, Rudy went into the kitchen, got himself charcoal, and started painting his whole body and face. He headed out the door, rode on his brother's bicycle to the track near his house, and started to gather people so that there would be a crowd. When there was enough, he started running on the field. However, at the end of the 100 meters, there stood his father (wearing a suit like always since he worked as a tailor). Mr. Steiner was a kind man when it came to normal circumstances. But this? His son running around with charcoal smeared on himself was surely not considered to be under normal circumstances. He grabbed his son's ear and headed walking home. On the way home, with Mr. Steiner steering the bicycle in one hand and his son in the other, he decided to talk to him about politics. During this time, Hitler was in a high position, and Jewish people were having a difficult time. Although Mr. Steiner was a member of the Nazi Party, he did not hate the Jews or anyone for that matter. However, as a father, he had the responsibility to teach his children what the norms were and weren't. He had to tell his son that he shouldn't want to be like the black people or Jewish people, or simply, "people or anyone who is...not us." But Rudy understood nothing of what his father had just told him. All he could do was act like he did.
The sixth chapter takes place in late May, so a few weeks later from the last time she showed up in the story, in the fourth chapter. Earlier that day, there had been a parade by the brown-shirted extremist members of the Nazi Party. Hans, Rudy, and Liesel stood on the footpath, watching the people walk by the street of Munich. When nighttime came and Liesel headed to sleep, she would have the usual nightmares of her dead brother. She would wake up from the dreams every night at two in the morning like it was a routine. However, tonight something unexpected happened, a bedwetting incident. Without saying anything, Hans understood the situation and carried her to the washroom. He was pulling the sheets off the bed when something dropped under the mattress, a book. This was the book Liesel had brought with her, she found laying in the snow on the day her brother was buried. When everything was clean, he asked Liesel if it was hers and if she wanted to read it. When Liesel answered "yes" to both of his questions, a tired smile showed on his face. Hans got on with the reading.
In the seventh chapter, it had already become summertime. The midnight class continued, and began every night, at the end of each nightmare. On a Thursday, just after 3 p.m, Hans and Liesel went out to do a few things; deliver some ironing, read the book, and listen to Hans play the accordion. (As you can imagine, playing the accordion inside the house would make Rosa go crazy.) After the delivery was done, they walked to a nearby river, the Amper river. The river pointed to the direction of Dachau, where there would be a concentration camp. They sat around thirty meters down from the wooden-plank bridge and took out the book, started writing the words down, and reading them aloud. When darkness came, Hans pulled out his accordion and played it for Liesel. She looked at Hans’s face listening and noticed that something seemed to be off with his perplexed expression. Nonetheless, having classes by the river became a staple routine for them. On days when the weather was bad though, they would go down to the basement. Hans would say a word for Liesel to spell it aloud and paint the words on the wall as long as she got it correct. Some nights after working in the basement, Liesel would sit crouched in the bath and hear Rosa’s voice complaining about the way Hans smells. But for Liesel, Hans’s smell was the smell of friendship. Unlike Rosa, she loved it.
The eighth chapter mainly consisted of two events. The first event took place at the beginning of September when Hans was on his way home from work when he saw a discarded newspaper. He picked it up, folded it, and slipped it beneath his shirt. However, by the time he made it home the ink had drawn into the skin from his sweat. Holding his shirt open, he read aloud the words of “Hitler takes Poland”. (This meant that World War Two had begun.) Slumping down onto a chair, he whispered something in German (“Deutschland uber Alles,”), and there it was again━his accordion face. Nearly a month later, school resumed and Liesel was moved up to her rightful year level, from the younger class. You might think that this was due to her improvement in the language, but it was due to the fact that she became disruptive in the class. Because of this, she would be given what was known as "Watschen" in the corridor. (She was basically taken outside to the corridor, and told to sit there.) Somewhere at the start of November, the second event takes place. There was a progress test at school, where every child was made to stand in front of the classroom and read from an instructed passage. However, when every student was done being called on except for Liesel, Sister Maria (the teacher) ended the test. Rudy shouted from the other side of the room, warning her that she forgot Liesel. However, Sister Maria was not impressed and explained that Liesel would not be able to read it. Despite that, Liesel stood up and so Sister Maria let her read. However, when it came down to it she couldn't do it. The fact that now tears were forming in her eyes didn't help much either. She had a solution. She started to read, but not from the book in front of her, it was something from "The Grave Diggers Handbook". She had memorized the lines from Hans's voice. But soon, Sister Maria grabbed the book in front of her and told Liesel to go out to the corridor. When break time came, things got worse. A kid named Ludwig Schmeikl started to taunt Liesel, laughing. Rudy tried to comfort her, but he just wouldn't stop. When she had enough of him, she kicked him down and punched him until his nose bled. That day on the way back home from school, she was with Rudy as always. From all the stress she had gone through that day, she couldn't help but think about her dead brother. When the rain started pouring, Rudy put his arm around her and they continued walking.
The fourth chapter is basically about meeting new people and making new friends from the people around her neighborhood. There is one particular person that Liesel becomes close with, Rudy. To explain some things about him, he is eight months older than her, lives right next door, has blue eyes, and hair the color of a lemon. People considered him to be a little crazy, since "the Jesse Owens incident", where he painted himself black and ran the 100 meters at the local playing field one night. (Jesse Owens is a black American athlete.) They first met at the field, where the kids on Himmel street would gather to play soccer. And no, it wasn't a good start. He ended up throwing a snowball in her face for deflecting his kick. But he gained her trust back just a few days later, by walking her to school and showing her around the streets at the same time. (Well, he was forced by his mom to do so, after hearing about him throwing a snowball in her face.) One afternoon, Rudy suggested that they race each other on a track, making a deal. Rudy wanted a kiss from her, and she wanted him to get her out of the "goalie" position when playing soccer. The results turned out to be a draw, and he didn't get his kiss but did agree to get her out of the goalie position.
The fifth chapter talked about the night the Jesse Owens incident took place. It starts off with the Steiner family in front of the tv, watching the Olympics, that was held in 1936 (three years before Liesel shows up). Jesse Owens had just completed the 4×100 relay race and won his fourth gold medal. Watching the scene, Rudy went into the kitchen, got himself charcoal, and started painting his whole body and face. He headed out the door, rode on his brother's bicycle to the track near his house, and started to gather people so that there would be a crowd. When there was enough, he started running on the field. However, at the end of the 100 meters, there stood his father (wearing a suit like always since he worked as a tailor). Mr. Steiner was a kind man when it came to normal circumstances. But this? His son running around with charcoal smeared on himself was surely not considered to be under normal circumstances. He grabbed his son's ear and headed walking home. On the way home, with Mr. Steiner steering the bicycle in one hand and his son in the other, he decided to talk to him about politics. During this time, Hitler was in a high position, and Jewish people were having a difficult time. Although Mr. Steiner was a member of the Nazi Party, he did not hate the Jews or anyone for that matter. However, as a father, he had the responsibility to teach his children what the norms were and weren't. He had to tell his son that he shouldn't want to be like the black people or Jewish people, or simply, "people or anyone who is...not us." But Rudy understood nothing of what his father had just told him. All he could do was act like he did.
The sixth chapter takes place in late May, so a few weeks later from the last time she showed up in the story, in the fourth chapter. Earlier that day, there had been a parade by the brown-shirted extremist members of the Nazi Party. Hans, Rudy, and Liesel stood on the footpath, watching the people walk by the street of Munich. When nighttime came and Liesel headed to sleep, she would have the usual nightmares of her dead brother. She would wake up from the dreams every night at two in the morning like it was a routine. However, tonight something unexpected happened, a bedwetting incident. Without saying anything, Hans understood the situation and carried her to the washroom. He was pulling the sheets off the bed when something dropped under the mattress, a book. This was the book Liesel had brought with her, she found laying in the snow on the day her brother was buried. When everything was clean, he asked Liesel if it was hers and if she wanted to read it. When Liesel answered "yes" to both of his questions, a tired smile showed on his face. Hans got on with the reading.
In the seventh chapter, it had already become summertime. The midnight class continued, and began every night, at the end of each nightmare. On a Thursday, just after 3 p.m, Hans and Liesel went out to do a few things; deliver some ironing, read the book, and listen to Hans play the accordion. (As you can imagine, playing the accordion inside the house would make Rosa go crazy.) After the delivery was done, they walked to a nearby river, the Amper river. The river pointed to the direction of Dachau, where there would be a concentration camp. They sat around thirty meters down from the wooden-plank bridge and took out the book, started writing the words down, and reading them aloud. When darkness came, Hans pulled out his accordion and played it for Liesel. She looked at Hans’s face listening and noticed that something seemed to be off with his perplexed expression. Nonetheless, having classes by the river became a staple routine for them. On days when the weather was bad though, they would go down to the basement. Hans would say a word for Liesel to spell it aloud and paint the words on the wall as long as she got it correct. Some nights after working in the basement, Liesel would sit crouched in the bath and hear Rosa’s voice complaining about the way Hans smells. But for Liesel, Hans’s smell was the smell of friendship. Unlike Rosa, she loved it.
The eighth chapter mainly consisted of two events. The first event took place at the beginning of September when Hans was on his way home from work when he saw a discarded newspaper. He picked it up, folded it, and slipped it beneath his shirt. However, by the time he made it home the ink had drawn into the skin from his sweat. Holding his shirt open, he read aloud the words of “Hitler takes Poland”. (This meant that World War Two had begun.) Slumping down onto a chair, he whispered something in German (“Deutschland uber Alles,”), and there it was again━his accordion face. Nearly a month later, school resumed and Liesel was moved up to her rightful year level, from the younger class. You might think that this was due to her improvement in the language, but it was due to the fact that she became disruptive in the class. Because of this, she would be given what was known as "Watschen" in the corridor. (She was basically taken outside to the corridor, and told to sit there.) Somewhere at the start of November, the second event takes place. There was a progress test at school, where every child was made to stand in front of the classroom and read from an instructed passage. However, when every student was done being called on except for Liesel, Sister Maria (the teacher) ended the test. Rudy shouted from the other side of the room, warning her that she forgot Liesel. However, Sister Maria was not impressed and explained that Liesel would not be able to read it. Despite that, Liesel stood up and so Sister Maria let her read. However, when it came down to it she couldn't do it. The fact that now tears were forming in her eyes didn't help much either. She had a solution. She started to read, but not from the book in front of her, it was something from "The Grave Diggers Handbook". She had memorized the lines from Hans's voice. But soon, Sister Maria grabbed the book in front of her and told Liesel to go out to the corridor. When break time came, things got worse. A kid named Ludwig Schmeikl started to taunt Liesel, laughing. Rudy tried to comfort her, but he just wouldn't stop. When she had enough of him, she kicked him down and punched him until his nose bled. That day on the way back home from school, she was with Rudy as always. From all the stress she had gone through that day, she couldn't help but think about her dead brother. When the rain started pouring, Rudy put his arm around her and they continued walking.
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