Liesel Meminger

Liesel was the character that was the most interesting to me. The strength of this little girl almost brought me to tears at the end of the novel. She changed a lot throughout the story but she still seemed strong in the beginning when her brother died. Her brother died and her mother left her and Liesel still had more room to love. This love lead her to bravery that astonished me in the story. When she walked out into the street with Max it created a whole new level of hate for the Nazis to me. She stole books but Liesel still struggled to do what was right instead of what was wrong. I don't think Liesel was ever really innocent to the struggles of death throughout the story. Her brother's death seemed to make her more realistic and capable of understanding the gravity of the situation around her. She kept Max a secret even to her best friend because she understood the necessity of the secret. She definitely became tougher through her experiences in the book. From small things like being taken into the hallway by the nun to large things like reading during air raids and reading to her neighbor after her son's death. Liesel was definitely the character that impacted me the most. Her bravery and her love for her family and friends was unshakable throughout the  story and Death was correct in saying that her story was extraordinary and one to retell.

Comic within a Comic

Prisoner on the Hell Planet

I thought the comic within the comic was very interesting. The first thing I noticed was that the characters were drawn as humans for the first time and not mice. For me, this comic was the hardest part of the novel to understand. I had more questions about why he was in a mental institution than why his mother killed himself. It was three months previous to her suicide so I am not certain if that was linked to her break down. I also noticed a sign in the bottom corner of one of the panels that said " protect what you have." Maybe it was about the nice caskets his cousin was talking about on the phone, or maybe it meant that they should have taken better care of her while she was alive. The suicide didn't surprise me much because during the flashbacks, Vladek often had to convince her to keep going. It is easy for me to believe she was just too overwhelmed and Vladek was not there to calm her down.The part I liked about the story was the last panel. Artie is crying and someone in another cell tells him to quiet down they are all trying to sleep. To me, that meant that other people, maybe his dad or the family had issues also but they kept them bottled up.