The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Teachers Key

ANTICIPATION GUIDE

Purpose: Anticipation guides allow the reader to make predictions, helps incite curiosity about the text they read, and introduces important themes in The Book Thief. It is also a way to prepare a reader prior to a reading assignment by asking them to react to a series of statements related to the book. Students will 1) relate prior knowledge to new information to enhance comprehension, 2) create interest which stimulates discussion on the topic, and 3) create possibilities for integrating reading and writing instruction. DIRECTIONS: Prior to reading the novel, The Book Thief, hand out the anticipation guide to the class. Instruct them to mark agree or disagreewhether or not they think the author will discuss the idea somewhere in the book. Remind them that they must be prepared to defend their answers. Have the students complete the guide individually or in small groups (so they can collaborate). Then have them compare their answers with their neighbors or neighboring groups. Finally, open up the discussion to the entire class. The issues touched on in the guide can generate further discussion of themes in the book such as the importance and power of words, love v. abandonment, death, and guilt. FURTHER DISCUSSION: As the class reads the book, refer back to the anticipation guide. Discuss with the students how their predictions may have come true or what they expected wasnt fulfilled in the text. The objective is to see what information the reading of the passage has allowed them to assimilate or learn.

Butler, BYU 2008

ANTICIPATION GUIDE Directions: Before reading The Book Thief check if you agree or disagree whether the author will discuss this theme or idea in the book. Be prepared to support your answer in group discussion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Agree Disagree ___X __ _______ Friendship runs deeper than simply having fun together. ___X___ _______ The words of one man can completely move a nation. ___X___ _______ Words are powerful weapons. Use them with care. _______ ___X___ Death is ugly and scary. ___X___ _______ Guilt and our conscience can lead us to do things we wouldnt otherwise do. _______ ___X___ Those that truly love us would never abandon us. _______ ___X___ Sticks and stone can break my bones, but words will never hurt me. ===================================== APPLICABLE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK Use these quotes from the book to support the answers to the anticipation guide. They can aid in the class discussion to give students a context to think about when they compare and argue their answers. 1) Friendship runs deeper than simply having fun together.

THE BOOK THIEF BY MARKUS ZUSAK

Now I think we are friends, this girl and me. One her birthday, it was she who gave a giftto me. It makes me understand that the best standover man Ive ever known is not a man at all (p. 235)
2) The words of one man can completely move a nation.

She had seen her brother die with one eye open, one still in a dream. She had said goodbye to her mother and imagined her lonely wait for a train back home to oblivion. A woman of wire had laid herself down, her scream traveling the street, till it fell sideways like a rolling coin starved of momentum. A young man was hung by a rope made of Stalingrad snow. She had watched a bomber pilot die in a metal case. She had seen a Jewish man show had twice given her the most beautiful pages of her life marched to a concentration camp. And at the center of all of it, she saw the Fuhrer shouting her words and passing them around. (pp. 520-521)
Words are powerful weapons. Use them with care.

I have hated the words and I have loved them, And I hope I have made them right. (p. 528)

Butler, BYU 2008

3) Death is ugly and scary.

Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And thats only the As...***Reaction to the Aforementioned Fact*** Does this worry you? I urge youdont be afraid. Im nothing if not fair. (p. 3)
4) Guilt and our conscience can lead us to do things we wouldnt otherwise do.

Do you play the accordion, by any chance? This time, Hans stopped, leaving the brush where it was. Again, he nodded. The stranger rubbed his jaw, looked around him, and then spoke with great quietness, yet great clarity: Are you a man who likes to keep a promise? (p. 184)
5) Those that truly love us would never abandon us.

She saw it all so clearly. Her starving mother, her missing father. Kommunisten. He dead brother. (p. 111)
6) Sticks and stone can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

A single word leaned against the girl. To their left, flames and burning books were cheered like heroes. (p. 113)

Butler, BYU 2008