Shelf Life Blog
Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice draws readers into the past with the story of an unwanted girl making her own way in the perilous Middle Ages.
This readalike is in response to a customer's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids. You can browse the book matches here.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: "Death is the narrator of this lengthy, powerful story of a town in Nazi Germany. He is a kindly, caring Death, overwhelmed by the souls he has to collect from people in the gas chambers, from soldiers on the battlefields, and from civilians killed in bombings. Death focuses on a young orphan, Liesl; her loving foster parents; the Jewish fugitive they are hiding; and a wild but gentle teen neighbor, Rudy, who defies the Hitler Youth and convinces Liesl to steal for fun. After Liesl learns to read, she steals books from everywhere. When she reads a book in the bomb shelter, even a Nazi woman is enthralled. Then the book thief writes her own story." (Booklist)
If you like The Book Thief, you may also like these titles and authors:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note. (Catalog summary)
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? (Catalog summary)
Imagine if your only bones were a skull, vertebrae, and ribs. What kind of animal would you be? What kind of animal would you be if you didn’t have any bones at all? Find out in Bone by Bone, written by Sara Levine and illustrated by T.S. Spookytooth!
Once there were three little monsters who were oh-so-bad but could not agree on who was the absolute worst! In an attempt to settle the argument once and for all, they start building The Monster's Monster.
Monsters, they're just like us! Sure, they lurk in darkened corridors, drink blood, and terrify unsuspecting villagers. When it really comes down to it, though, we all want the same things. In Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, Adam Rex explores every aspect of these monstrous needs...in rhyme!
In Eileen Spinelli’s Another Day as Emily, Suzy is having a difficult year. Her little brother is a town hero for calling 911 and saving an injured neighbor, leaving Suzy feeling jealous of his newfound celebrity. What’s more, the boy she might like is accused of stealing, her parents are paying her less attention than ever, and only her best friend gets a part in the play they both auditioned for.
This readalike is in response to a customer's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids. You can browse the book matches here.
The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich: "What happens when a trained killer discovers that his true vocation is love? Having survived the killing fields of World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns home to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend who was killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious set of knives, Fidelis sets out for America, getting as far as North Dakota, where he builds a business, a home for his family -- which includes Eva and four sons-and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. When the Old World meets the New -- in the person of Delphine Watzka -- the great adventure of Fidelis's life begins. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted; she meets Fidelis, and the ground trembles. " (Book description)
If you enjoyed this novel, you may also enjoy these other titles:
Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig
The central volume in Ivan Doig's acclaimed Montana trilogy, Dancing at the Rascal Fair is an authentic saga of the American experience at the turn of this century and a passionate, portrayal of the immigrants who dared to try new lives in the imposing Rocky Mountains. Ivan Doig's supple tale of landseekers unfolds into a fateful contest of the heart between Anna Ramsay and Angus McCaskill, walled apart by their obligations as they and their stormy kith and kin vie to tame the brutal, beautiful Two Medicine country.
The Night Birds by Thomas James Maltman
For Asa the summer of 1876 was a time of fear and uncertainty, when his mysterious aunt, Hazel, arrives and turns his entire life upside-down with her tales and secrets from the past.
When Floyd's toy kite encounters a tree, it gets terribly, hopelessly Stuck. Floyd is not one to give up on his prized possession, so he takes off his shoe and hurls it at the kite...and that gets stuck, too.
I Wear the Black Hat is Chuck Klosterman's sixth book of cultural essays and the first one to explore villainy in all of its forms.
Sisters Pearl and May Chin are “Beautiful Girls”—artists’ models in 1930s Shanghai. They live in amazing times in a modern city, dancing at nightclubs, dining at expensive restaurants, buying new outfits, and having lots of admirers. Neither college-graduate Pearl nor everyone’s darling May give much thought to their futures. They think they can go on like this forever, marrying as they choose, if they choose. Unfortunately for these Shanghai Girls, they are quite mistaken.
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