The seniors’ ‘Book Club’ recently met in the library again – this time to discuss “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak.
The award winning novel was chosen by Y10’s Jae Hur as he had recently read Zusak’s 2005 debut novel and claimed it was his ‘favourite book ever’. Jae was determined for the rest of us to agree.
I’m not sure about rating it as a ‘favourite’ but we all unanimously agreed that we had liked the novel, although there were a few mutterings of it being a bit ‘unusual’ and ‘not the kind of book I would normally choose’. There were a slightly smaller number of us ‘book clubbers’ this time, but we all joyfully noted that the number of cakes that were brought to the library picnic (thank you Annabel!) had thankfully not diminished. So we settled down, with a cup of tea, a sandwich and some home baked muffins to mull over the rather unconventional novel.
I think that we hadn’t quite realised how much we had all enjoyed reading the novel until we met and discussed its finer details such as (amongst others) the unusual narrator (Death!); the historical realism; and the fact that the writer was actually only 30 when the novel was published.
It was officially a retrospective hit.
Jae has promised to write his own book review – I’m not sure he even trusted his English teacher to write about Zusak’s novel with enough tenderness and affection – and I am holding him to his word. Watch this space!
The next book that we will be reading is “THUG: The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, and we will be meeting in the library, during our lunch time, on January 18th. Any other senior pupils who would like to join us are very welcome – just make sure you have read the book!
Claire Park
Head of English, Curriculum and Enrichment