Your Notes:
How and where is the book found?
Max creates the book and leaves it in his mattress and he leaves it there for her to find and her Mama gives it to her after she comes back from a reading session. “she was holding Max Vandenburg’s sketch book. He said to give it to you when you were ready…”
What’s the book like/ what’s it about?
It was made by Max. He painted over the pages of Mein Kampf and painted his own story. It’s about Liesel’s tree and how it’s the biggest and no one can cut it down. About how propaganda works and how Hitler poisoned people with words. “best world shaker of her region because she knew how powerless a person could be”.
What happens to the book over the course of the section it appears in?
When the book is given to her she reads it but the book can also symbolise the great compassion she has for Max. Liesel’s tree can symbolise her friendship with Max and by Hitler not being able to cut the tree can symbolise that their friendship is very strong and valuable. “Days passed. Weeks took over. A hundred and ninety-six soldiers couldn’t make any impact on the word shakers tree.”
How does the book help us to understand key aspects of the novel?
The “word shaker” effectively caps Liesel's realization of the awesome power of words. It can symbolize her love for words and the power of their relationship. “The word shaker allowed a single teardrop to fall on his face. The tear was made of friendship – a single word – which dried and became a seed… she planted the seed amongst the other tree.”
Max creates the book and leaves it in his mattress and he leaves it there for her to find and her Mama gives it to her after she comes back from a reading session. “she was holding Max Vandenburg’s sketch book. He said to give it to you when you were ready…”
What’s the book like/ what’s it about?
It was made by Max. He painted over the pages of Mein Kampf and painted his own story. It’s about Liesel’s tree and how it’s the biggest and no one can cut it down. About how propaganda works and how Hitler poisoned people with words. “best world shaker of her region because she knew how powerless a person could be”.
What happens to the book over the course of the section it appears in?
When the book is given to her she reads it but the book can also symbolise the great compassion she has for Max. Liesel’s tree can symbolise her friendship with Max and by Hitler not being able to cut the tree can symbolise that their friendship is very strong and valuable. “Days passed. Weeks took over. A hundred and ninety-six soldiers couldn’t make any impact on the word shakers tree.”
How does the book help us to understand key aspects of the novel?
The “word shaker” effectively caps Liesel's realization of the awesome power of words. It can symbolize her love for words and the power of their relationship. “The word shaker allowed a single teardrop to fall on his face. The tear was made of friendship – a single word – which dried and became a seed… she planted the seed amongst the other tree.”
Past Students' Notes:
This is Max’s second book. Mama gives it to Liesel. It shows the role of words in Hitler’s rise to power. Max planted the seed – he gave her the words and helped to teach her. Her words represent rebellion against the system. The book shows a fairytale ending that she and Max will walk off at the end – happily – foreshadowing? Hitler uses the power of words to control the nation. This also shows the power of words. Liesel and Max are the wordshakers – they are the ones who will lend language its integrity, who will save it frombecoming a machine of the state (totalitarian state).