Q3 Outside Reading Post #5

In these pages of the book, Lisel starts to learn how to read.  The city in which they live in is very poor.  They also don't have a good education so a lot of them are illiterate.  Even adults, such as Papa, didn't know how to read either.  Markus Zusak writes, "To tell you the truth, Papa explained upfront, I am not such a good reader myself" (85).  This really shows that Papa wasn't the best reader either.  I don't understand how one can go very far in life without reading.  This might be why they live in a poor area of town.  If one can't read well, they can't get a good job because all jobs require at least some sort of reading.  Lisel, being as curious as she is, was very eager to start reading.  Zusak writes, "Over the next few weeks and into summer, the midnight class began at the end of each nightmare" (69).  Lisel wanted to learn to read very badly.  Every time she had one of her usual nightmares, Papa would comfort her by teaching her different letters of the alphabet.  Those letters eventually came words she could read and finally sentences.

It is very interesting because at this point of the book, we still don't know who the narrator is.  It really keeps you thinking of all the possibilities of whom it might be.  This book is told from a point of view of someone who is watching.  It is almost like the narrator is some sort of stalker because he/she knows everything that is going in their lives at every moment.  I wonder when we will find out who the actual narrator is.