The general setting and time period of The Book Thief is from 1939 to 1943. The rough summary of most of the book is about a young girl named Liesel, who she and her mother live in a train, when suddenly his brother Werner dies. They immediately get off at the next stop to bury him. One of the gravediggers had a book in his hand, but he drops it and Liesel picks it up. Liesel and her mother continue to go to Munich, then to a place called Molching. When her parents are ill, Liesel must be placed with foster parents. She is placed with a couple named Hans and Roma. Liesel has nightmares about her dead brother on the train when she first arrives at the Hubermanns' house and wakes up screaming. Liesel attends a school, where she is forced to study with the younger children because she is behind in her studies. Liesel turns ten in February and her adoptive parents give her a doll. She also wears a uniform and is drafted into Hitler. Her adoptive mother starts taking Liesel with her when she receives laundry from neighbors in Molching, and when Liesel is old enough she will start doing the same thing. To celebrate Hitler's birthday, the people of Molching gather for a bonfire during which they burn enemy articles, such as flags, including books. Liesel sees a book that survived the fire and hides it under her shirt. He is beginning to realize that Hitler is responsible for his brother's death and his mother's absence, and he hates him for it. Ilsa Hermann sees Liesel take the book and decides to share her love of books with Liesel by inviting her to her library. Max Vandenburg hides in a storage room in Stuttgart and receives help from his friend Walter Kugler. Walter has been in contact with Ha...... center of paper ......ion, rather than a car, so this indicates the time period of the book. Also, the fact that students often had to do drills and get under desks indicates that it was wartime, and in the book it says it started in 1939. In the book I noticed that there were some real fictional characters and some not fictional. Liesel and Rudy, for example, would be fictional. However, Stalin and Hitler would be non-fictional characters. These historical figures belong to this time period because in this period they got their name, they became known to the world, not necessarily for doing something good, but they did bad things to others and to their own country. Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party and Germany during this period, until his death during the last stage of the war. Stalin was also the leader of the USSR during this period.