In Part I, the story takes a sharp turn back to the first time Death met Liesel Meminger. On a train a boy died, while he was collecting the soul, Death saw the Book Thief, shaking her brother, hoping that the fear in the pit of her stomach was wrong. He followed her and her mother as they exited the train with the boys tiny body in his mothers arms. At her brother's funeral, Liesel found a small book in the snow, she took it and hid it away from her mother, while she is being dragged away from her brothers grave. Leaving her brother behind, Liesel and her mother continued their journey.
"The book thief had struck for the first time-the beginning of and illustrious career"Liesel doesn't know how to read nor write but she knows how powerful words can be.
When they arrive, Liesel is handed over to a foster care worker, and her mother disappears. When they arrive to Liesel's new home, she refuses to get out of the car and is harshly chastised by her new mother, but it's her new fathers soothing and inviting face that lures her out.
On Himmel street Liesel learns a lot about her harsh mother and kind father. Even though she has nightmares about her brothers death, she embraces her new life. She meets Rudy who automatically likes her and want to be her best friend. And goes to school where at first she is forced to study with the youger groups since she cannot read or write, but she is soon transferred to a special "Hitler School."
You don't realize that it is the time of WWII, but subtly the author drops hints cluing you into the idea and foreshadowing the future. The book is a bit morbid, since it is in the perspective of Death, but it gives it a bit of edge. I personally find Deaths directness a bit funny.
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