Student Saturday: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Publisher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages:  550
Student Reviewer:  Courtney

I read The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak.  This book is about Liesel Miminger.  She doesn't have the best luck.  For example, her brother dies on a train, her mom gives her away to foster parents and she's living in the Nazi time.  Liesel steals books. Her foster father would wake up at midnight every night and teach her how to read.  One night Liese's family hides a Jew, and from there things start to go down hill.  I can make a connection with the story because when I was three my dad would help me all the time, working hard to learn to read.  My opinion of the book was that it was really good, but I was expecting something a little bit more interesting to happen.  My recommendation for this boo is when yous tart to read you should give a long way into it.  If you don't it gets a little bit boring.

Guest Post: John Bemis

    John Claude Bemis

The act of creating a story becomes an opportunity to explore truths about life.  This is one of the most exciting aspects to being a writer.  In writing The Prince Who Fell from the Sky, I discovered something very interesting: our identity is often based on our relationships with others. 

The unnamed boy who is at the center of my novel is the sole survivor of a crashed spaceship.  He has landed on a future Earth where no humans remain.  In our absence, animals and the wilderness have taken over.  To the powerful and outcast bear Casseomae who finds the boy, he becomes her surrogate child.  None of her real cubs have ever survived, and she longs to be a mother, even if it means given up all she has ever known to protect this boy.  But wolves rule Casseomae’s forest, wolves that carry legends how their kind were once hunted by humans.  To the wolves and their merciless leader, the Ogeema, the boy is a threat and a devil.  So the wolves begin a deadly hunt for Casseomae’s cub.

Other animals have legends about humans as well.  Dogs remember how their kind once lived gloriously among us.  And it is because of this that dogs are viewed as traitors by the wolves and other animals of Casseomae’s forest.  To the dog Pang, the boy is a spark of hope, a possible savior for Pang’s kin, and he joins Casseomae in her quest to lead the boy to a safe haven.  The boy’s third companion is a rat named Dumpster.  Rats have very different legends about humans.  To Dumpster, the boy brings out conflicting feelings.  Humans meant food and a comfortable life to his ancestors, but humans were also a threat.  Dumpster struggles with his feelings and intentions for Casseomae’s cub.  To each of the various characters of my novel, the boy takes on a different role.

While the story makes for a grand and often harrowing adventure, it also allowed me a chance to wonder about our relationships, our dreams, and our fears.  Who are we if not the person others see us as?  It’s a fascinating mystery that’s left me wondering long after finishing The Prince Who Fell from the Sky.

Bio:

John Claude Bemis is the author of The Clockwork Dark, a fantasy adventure trilogy that takes place in a mythical America. The first book, The Nine Pound Hammer (Random House), was described as “a steampunk collision of heroes, mermaids, pirates, and good old-fashioned Americana” by Booklist and was a New York Public Library Best Children’s Book 2009 for Reading and Sharing.  The trilogy continues with The Wolf Tree and The White City and has been described as “original and fresh” and “a unique way of creating fantasy.”  His new book The Prince Who Fell from the Sky was named an Amazon Best Book of the Month for May 2012.   John lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with his wife and daughter.  www.johnclaudebemis.com

The Prince Who Fell From the Sky - John Claude Bemis

REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

Publisher:  Random House (May 22, 2012)

Pages:  272

Source:  Review copy from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Genre:  Middle Grade, Post-Apocalyptic, Animal Fantasy

From Goodreads:

In Casseomae's world, the wolves rule the Forest, and the Forest is everywhere. The animals tell stories of the Skinless Ones, whose cities and roads once covered the earth, but the Skinless disappeared long ago.

Casseomae is content to live alone, apart from the other bears in her tribe, until one of the ancients' sky vehicles crashes to the ground, and from it emerges a Skinless One, a child. Rather than turn him over to the wolves, Casseomae chooses to protect this human cub, to find someplace safe for him to live. But where among the animals will a human child be safe? And is Casseomae threatening the safety of the Forest and all its tribes by protecting him?

Middle-grade fans of post apocalyptic fiction are in for a treat with this fanciful and engaging animal story by the author of the Clockwork Dark trilogy.

My Thoughts:

This is one author who has that magical touch that allows his animals to become somewhat human.  In a world where the humans are supposedly extinct, a bear and rat find themselves protecting a child who fell from the sky.  When a flying craft crashes in the forest, Dumpster, a rat and Casseomae find themselves the protector of the only survivor, a young boy.  The animals of the forest call humans the “skinless ones”.  As you read you realize they have many prejudices against humans based on what they have heard from tales passed down.  I thought it interesting that Dumpster was the keeper of the memories.  He is despised by others in the forest because he lived among the humans.  Dogs are even lower on the list because they lived with the humans. 

Knowing this small boy or cub as Casseomae calls him will not harm them, she sets out to get him to safety.  When word of the child reaches their leader Ogeema, he is determined to kill the child.  I loved the bond between the bear and the boy.  I loved the way Dumpster pretended he didn’t care about the boy and that he was nothing but trouble.  His actions proved different.   This reminded me of the movie “Ice Age” where the wooly mammoth was determined to get the small boy back to his people.

I loved the writing style.  Bemis did not tell the names of animals.  He described them through the eyes of the band of animals traveling together.  When Casseomae comes upon her first strange animal she described it as a “strange deer.  It had an exceptionally long neck ….she could make out spots over its coat, large brown blots against a field of tawny yellow.” (Page 193)  It would have been so much easier to just say they saw the carcass of a dead giraffe.  His descriptions showed the animals as intelligent but not all knowing.  I had not read his previous trilogy The Clockwork Dark, but will definitely do so now.  This is an author I will proudly recommend to all of my students and parents. 


Come back tomorrow for a guest post from the Author.

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