The Book Thief / Markus Zusak / 552p

As a librarian that is supposed to be knowledgeable about YA literature, I am embarrassed to admit that it took me this long to read The Book Thief.  I was scared of it.  Scared that it would be too sad.  But, I finally gathered up my courage and checked out the audiobook.

Narrated by Death, the story of a young German girl named Liesel growing up during World War II was, as I feared, quite sad.  However, it was, as I had heard and assumed, also, a beautiful story with wonderful characters, an interesting story telling style (in which you basically know who is going to die quite early on in the story), and a setting in a time period that will always, to me, be both heartbreaking and immensely interesting.  If you haven't read this, just get yourself together and enjoy the ride.  The audiobook is highly recommended - the narrator does a fantastic job and also, when you listen, you don't have to fuss over the pronunciation of the German words.