Arrival on Himmel Street

...

- Papa takes Liesel to the Amper – upstream where he used to practice his accordion. That had caught her attention. At the beginning, she refused to allow Liesel to go until Papa offered to take her ironing for her which then made Mama agree.

- Hans takes Liesel to the Amper River which extends towards a concentration camp. His look was connected with his accordion as well as a man who would soon show up to their house.

- Papa and Liesel use the basement if the weather is bad near the river. When they are running low on sandpaper, they resort to use the wall. When the wall is full, Papa would paint over them and start all over. It is also a place where they wouldn’t be able to hear Rosa complain.

- The elements that blend together to make the ‘smell of friendship’ is cigarettes from Hans and kerosene from the lamp. Liesel finds the smell wonderful because it was “the smell of friendship, and she could find it on herself too”. Rosa doesn’t enjoy the smell of cigarettes and kerosene because she finds it on Hans every time he and Liesel are out.

The Heavyweight Champion of the school yard

- The two important event that Death recalls during September-November 1939 are World War 2 beginning, Germany invades Poland, and England and France declare war on Germany and Liesel becoming the heavyweight champion of the schoolyard. These events are significant to be put under the same heading because fighting occurs in both scenarios.

- Papa becomes extremely shocked that Hitler has taken over Germany but responds calmly and tries to keep the news away from Liesel because he knows that Liesel comes from Poland and that she would be devastated to hear the news. This however, was futile because he pressed the newspaper so hard against his chest that it left an imprint in which Liesel read and discovered.

- Liesel had moved to her rightful year group not because her reading was improved but because she was more disruptive in the lower class. She still had difficulty reading and words fooling her.

- She was supposed to read a passage that she was given but instead chose to read something off ‘The Gravedigger’s Handbook’ where she was told to walk out to the corridor and gets a beating. After Ludwig Schmeikl starts teasing Liesel during the break, he ask her to him read and call her an idiot to which she snaps and starts beating Ludwig calling him a Saukerl and Arschloch. After Ludwig is half dead, she sees Tommy Muller smiling to which she grabs him and starts beating him as well.

- When Sister Maria gives Liesel a beating, no one dared to laugh because everyone now feared her hoping that they won’t get their blood on her knuckles.

- As Liesel and Rudy were walking back home, she has visions of the loss of her family as she walks and breaks down, crying. She then asks “Why did Werner have to die?” but Rudy couldn’t answer that and waits until she was done and continued back to Himmel Street.