“‘ Holy Christ,” Liesel gasped. “You scared me, Max.” He returned to his sleep, and behind her, the girl dragged the same thought up the steps. You scared me, Max.” (Zusak 281)

Max wanted to one day share his book with Liesel after the whole war is over, however, he doesn’t realize that she just saw his book. She said this after she just looked at his book and put it back in its correct position. There are many scary images that she never thought that she would find in his book.

Many people keep diaries or notebooks of some kind to help express what they are really feeling or if they want to share something but has no one to share it with. Max and Liesel lead very different lives, and so Liesel never thought about how Max would cope with his anger and how he felt. This quote shows that there was a whole other side of Max that she never knew about and she was just finding out about it. She thought that he was fine, not happy, but okay with the situation and never thought about how this situation affects him. This quote is significant because Liesel would from then on think of Max differently because of his book.

In Max’s book, there is a page that has the words, “All my life, I’ve been scared of men standing over me.”(Zusak 224). First, it was his father, then it was Hitler. Liesel is protected by people and he has no one to protect him. This might lead to something else that will happen to him or Liesel because he might be someone that stands up for something that they believe in. Liesel might also be someone who stands up for themself or Max because she saw what he was thinking and feeling.

What Liesel said makes me think about how we don’t really know what people are feeling and we can only assume. That is why I thought that this quote was so important and stood out. It is important in the book because Liesel and Max have different perspectives on things so it is important that they know what each other are going through. That is why this quote stood out.