Customer Reviews

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Story Description:

Random House Children's Books | October 23, 2007 | Trade Paperback

Berlin 1942.

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

My Review:

Bruno is nine-years-old when he arrives home from school one day to find the maid, Maria packing up the belongings in his room. He becomes very upset and demands to know what is going on when his mother comes into the room and asks him to meet her downstairs in the dining room. Bruno is so anxious that he speeds past his mother and his waiting for her downstairs before she even has a chance to step off the first stair. She tells Bruno that his father has received an important promotion and they must leave Berlin and move to another city and live in another house. Bruno, of course, is quite upset as he doesn't want to leave his beloved home nor his three best friends. His mother assures him that things will be alright and that the whole family including: Bruno; his twelve-year-old sister, Gretel; their father; the maid, Maria; the butler, Lars; and Cook will all be moving together.

When they arrive at the new house Bruno is very disappointed as it sat almost in the middle of nowhere with no other homes nearby nor markets or stores. All Bruno can see from the window of his new bedroom is a fence with barbed wire on top, some huts in the distance, and older men, younger men, and boys all wearing the same grey striped pajamas and grey striped cap with soldiers watching them. He doesn't even know what his father's job is.

What is this place and what could possibly be his father's job working with all these dirty, filthy people all dressed the same? He wants to be an explorer so decides to go for a walk. He follows the fence along for quite a distance until he comes to a piece of fencing where he sees a small boy. The boy approaches the fence and he and Bruno and make introductions and begin talking. The boy's name is Shmuel, he is the same age as Bruno and even shares the same birthday. During an entire year, naïve Bruno brings his new friend bread, cheese and cake most days as the boy doesn't have enough to eat.

One day Bruno is told by his father that his mother, Gretel and Bruno will be returning to Berlin while he stays and continues working at the same job. He tells Bruno that it is no place to raise children and he'd be much happier back in Berlin. Bruno is devastated, he doesn't want to go back to Berlin now because he doesn't want to leave Shmuel but they plan to have a last day together like no other bringing the story to a crashing end! I was totally taken aback at the ending and didn't expect it at all.

John Boyne has written a book about nine-year-olds that isn't for nine-year-olds as it says on the back cover of the novel. Don't miss this one people, it'll surprise you and break your heart so have some kleenex standing by. Beautifully and hauntingly written.

I reommend this book highly. It should be compulsory reading for everyone. A poignant story of a nine year old boy whose father is the commandant for the German army and lives next to the concentration camp, but doesn't really know what it is or what his father's real job is. He meets a boy the same age from the concentration camp and is a heartrending story of their friendship and family situations.

Words cannot describe how amazing this book is. A short read, but it has a huge impact on the reader. I had to read the ending twice, because I just couldn't believe it. I was shocked, and stunned. It should be a compulsory read, especially for young adults. This book should go hand and hand with "Night" by Eli Weisel. I wish I could give in 10 stars because it really deserves it. My local book store has it on the "16 books you should read before you die" list. Honestly, you want a fast read that is simply amazing...GO BUY THIS BOOK!

What an incredible story! John Boyne has created innocent, naïve Bruno and given him a powerful story to tell. This moving book should be required reading for everyone.

Set in the 1940's in Berlin, Germany, the story centers around a nine-year-old German boy named Bruno. His family leaves Berlin to move to the country because his father has been reassigned by the "Fury." Bruno's youth and innocence has protected him from the harsh realities of Hilter and his reign of terror.

Life in the country is dull and boring for Bruno. He doesn't understand his new home, "Out-With." He's left his friends behind and doesn't like the smaller house he's forced to live in with his parents and his sister. Missing the hustle and bustle of the city, Bruno begins to explore his new surroundings. Beyond the fence near his house, he sees people, but is confused by their strange striped pajamas and their sad demeanor.

Bruno's loneliness is somewhat relieved when he becomes friends with a boy on the other side of the fence. They meet daily and exchange comments about their daily lives, but neither fully understands the circumstances of the other.

Boyne presents a story about the Holocaust like none other before. He brings tragedy to life through the eyes of innocent children. Readers of all ages will be spellbound until the last page and beyond.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

This is a fiction book geared towards 9- to 12-year-olds. The reader gradually learns who the hero of the book is, through his recalling recent events in his family's move from Berlin to "Out-With".The plot is fairly interesting and the character development not too bad. The author should have continuously reminded himself, though, that he should be speaking and thinking like a 9-year-old. Too many times he puts words and thoughts into little Bruno's mouth and head that no 9-year-old would have in his vocabulary. And so many of the expressions are British/Irish, not German. Like telling his friend to put on a "jumper" when he is cold. The book needs a good editing, to remove these kinds of inaccuracies. There was also puerile use of repetition. I thought I would close the book at one point if the author used the phrase "Hopeless Case" one more time to refer to Bruno's older sister, or the description of his father's office as being "Out of Bounds At All Times And No Exceptions". What is the point of all this capitalization? Is he trying to sound like A.A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh"? I realize it is difficult to come down to a child's level when trying to teach something as horrible as the Holocaust, and the author tried. I much preferred books by Carol Matas (Lisa's War, After the War), Lois Lowry (Number the Stars) for fictional accounts, and such ones as Daniel's Story for non-fiction.

Bruno is nine years old. He is distraught when his family must leave their house in Berlin ' his father has received a promotion, and will now be in charge of a place called Out-With.

Out-With is very boring. The only thing of interest is a huge fence with lots of people behind it, who get to wear striped pajamas every day.

One day, while exploring, Bruno finds a boy named Shmuel on the other side of the fence. He discovers that they were born on exactly the same day, and they become fast friends. Shmuel says the soldiers are mean, but Bruno knows it can't be that bad if his father is in charge.

Then Shmuel's grandfather disappears. Months later, his father does too. Bruno is determined to help his friend, so he disguises himself in the striped pajamas and climbs under the fence.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne, is a powerful account of the Holocaust, as seen through the eyes of a child.

Although I found this book moving, I also found it slightly unbelievable: Bruno is old enough that he should have caught on to some of the things happening in the world around him. The tone is also a little to didactic for my choice. Nevertheless, this is worth a read.

This book doesn't just introduce you to Bruno, it arrests your mind and places you into his world. Written from the perspective of a naive nine year old boy, the book drew me back to when I was nine and the way that I thought about, and struggled with, things too great and too evil for an innocent mind to comprehend.

Boyne's writing style is perfect to convey a childs thoughts and emotions at one of the darkest times in human history. Those who say otherwise, I feel, have missed the point (and therefore the beauty) of this book entirely. It truly brought me back to when I was a young lad. It gave me goosebumps, it made me laugh, and it serves as a warning of the evil that is possible when (to quote Edmund Burke) "good men do nothing."

I recommend "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" as an easy and thought-provoking read and guarantee that it will be rewarding to anyone, no matter their age or depth of study.

It's difficult to know how to explain to a child some of the most disturbing events of the twentieth century. How do you explain an evil as overwhelming as that of the Nazi death camps, Stalin's systematic starvation of millions of Ukrainians, Mao's cultural revolution, or the horrors of Pol Pot?

This film illustrates how it can be done and done well. It's the story of a friendship that develops between a concentration camp commandant's young son and a Jewish boy in the camp. Yes, during the real events such a friendship would have been almost impossible. There'd have been a guard who'd have seen the two talking through the camp's fence and quickly put a stop to it. And yes, the horrors of camp life are heavily sanitized. When they need to move camp inmates, the guards wave their arms about like they were shooing chickens on a farm. In the real camps, they'd have beaten anyone who moved too slowly with the butts of their rifles.

But all those inaccuracies are necessary. Yell too loudly at a child, and he becomes paralyzed, unable to hear what you are saying. Show a child evil that is too raw and uncensored, and their minds will freeze up. While not denying the actual events, this film lowers the volume at which they are presented, so a child's mind can grasp them. All the Nazi measures to marginalize Jews, driving them out of jobs and professions, is reduced to one gentle, elderly man, a former physician who now peals potatoes. All the Nazi propaganda that the Jews are vermin, typified by a school textbook read aloud, is contrasted to a shy Jewish boy in striped pajamas with his head shaved. Small, personalized snapshots are used to explain something that in its totality would be too overwhelming.

By all means show this film to children seven and older. Discuss it with them before, during and afterward. But before you show it, watch it yourself, view the deleted scenes (which fill in missing parts of the plot), and listen to the excellent voice over commentary by the book's author and the film's director. You'll understand the story better yourself and thus be better able to explain it to your children.

--Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II

A good book for initiating discussion on the Holocaust. I bought it for intermediate students at my school, but after reading it, think it would be suitable for younger kids as well since the writing and plot are quite simple, and there is no graphic violence, etc.
A MUCH BETTER Holocaust story told from a youngster's perspective is The Book Thief by Zusak. It is far more intense, factual and emotional and is better written - but is also for a more mature audience ie. 13 and up

Short read but excellent. I first got this book because i saw a movie preview and thought it was a good story that would make a better book then movie. I was dissappointed to see that it was so short, but Boyne did a wonderful job telling this story through a young boys eyes. I later watched the movie which was NOTHING in comparison.