“How does it feel, anyway?”“How does what feel?”“When you take one of those books?”At that moment, she chose to keep still. I he wanted an answer, he’d have to come back, and he did. “Well?”he asked, but again, it was the boy who replied, before Liesel could even open her mouth. “It feels good, doesn’t it? To steal something back.”

Markus Zusak is the author of I Am the Messenger, winner of the Children's Book Council Book of the Year in Australia, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and Getting the Girl. The author lives in Sydney, Australia.