The Book Thief Quote Connection Activity

Having students choose a favorite quote or scene from a book allows them to express which parts of the story resonated with them on a personal level. In this way, students are making a text-to-self connection that demonstrates their understanding of the characters and their development or the themes of the novel. Students can share their storyboards afterwards and have a short discussion about what the quotes mean to them.

Some students may end up choosing the same quote, but have different perspectives. This is always interesting for students to see and can open up a discussion as to how not everyone can read the same lines in the same way based on their own perspectives and personal experiences.

Examples of Quotes from The Book Thief

"I witness the ones that are left behind, crumbled among the jigsaw puzzles of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs."

"There was a chaos of goodbye."

"Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't."

"The road of yellow stars."

"How could he show up and ask people to risk their lives for him? How could he be so selfish?"

"To live. Living was living. The price was guilt and shame."

"The suffering faces of depleted men and women reached across to them, pleading not so much for help, but for an explanation. Just something to subdue this confusion."

"I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."

"Last note from your narrator: I am haunted by humans."

He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips. Yes, I know it. In the darkness of my dark-beating heart, I know. He'd have loved it, all right. You see? Even death has a heart."

"That afternoon, in the secret ground below 33 Himmel Street, the Hubermanns, Liesel Meminger, and Max Vandenburg prepared the pages of The Word Shaker. It felt good to be a painter."

"The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the fuhrer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or worldly tricks to make us feel better. What good were the words?"

"Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes."