Analysis

Death has told us previously that Liesel doesn’t ask Hans to teach her the accordion because she doesn’t think she could ever get it to sound like Hans does. But now, she’s found the medium through which she can move people, calm them, and evoke music in her soul: reading. Words are her notes; the books are her instruments. Already she knows that words can instill fear in people; now, she sees how words can help take that fear away. Liesel discovers her voice in this chapter, and Rosa softens and reveals just how proud she is of Liesel when she tells Max about what happened in the basement. Liesel likes to think of Max standing at the window while they’re underground. Just as she steals books through a window, Max steals the sky.