The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

In 1939 a nine-year-old girl named Liesel is deposited by her mother with a foster family in a small town in Germany. No one seems to know why or how this came about, but the girl adjusts to her new home and grows into adolescence against the backdrop of rising Nazi aggression. Her childhood made interesting by adventures she and her friend Rudy get into and by her family's harboring of a Jewish man. Eventually to war gets to their small town near Munich and the fates of Liesel, her parents, Ruby, and the hidden Jew are played out amidst the chaos of Germany's defeat. The Book Thief is a well written and compelling story.