Page 312 - The Book Thief

The soccer ball had given her an idea.

Whenever she walked to and from school now, Liesel was on the lookout for
discarded items that might be valuable to a dying man. She wondered at first
why it mattered so much. How could something so seemingly insignificant give
comfort to someone? A ribbon in a gutter. A pinecone on the street. A button
leaning casually against a classroom wall. A flat round stone from the river. If
nothing else, it showed that she cared, and it might give them something to talk
about when Max woke up.

When she was alone, she would conduct those conversations.

So whats all this? Max would say. Whats all this junk?

Junk? In her mind, she was sitting on the side of the bed. This isnt junk, Max.
These are what made you wake up.

PRESENTS #6#9
One feather, two newspapers.
A candy wrapper. A cloud.

The feather was lovely and trapped, in the door hinges of the church on Munich
Street. It poked itself crookedly out and Liesel hurried over to rescue it. The
fibers were combed flat on the left, but the right side was made of delicate edges
and sections of jagged triangles. There was no other way of describing it.

The newspapers came from the cold depths of a garbage can (enough said), and
the candy wrapper was flat and faded. She found it near the school and held it up
to the light. It contained a collage of shoe prints.

Then the cloud.