The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

written by John Boyne

Random House Children's Books, 2007

Genre: children's historical fiction

Reading Level: Ages 12+

240 pages

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is about a naive young German boy named Bruno with a Nazi father during the Holocaust. The book starts out with Bruno being told that him and his family have to move because the "Fury" has given his father a new job. Bruno is extremely unhappy with this decision because he likes Berlin, doesn't want to leave his friends, and doesn't understand the point. Against his will his family moves to a big, cold, intimidating house Bruno calls "out-with". Bruno is not impressed to say the least. The house is constantly bustling with other soldiers, and out his window he sees a bunch of people in striped pajamas that he's not allowed to go play with and doesn't understand why. The reader recognizes many aspects of the holocaust situation but Bruno is naive to it all. The book talks about Bruno's grandmother who doesn't agree with Bruno's father's job and yet he is so important. One day when Bruno is fed up with being stuck in the house he goes out to explore the area near the tall fence surrounding the people in the striped pajamas. He meets a boy about his age who is wearing striped pajamas. They quickly become friends, and soon Bruno is going to meet him everyday. Shmuel, the young boy describes how his life has changed and Bruno is completely oblivious to what happened to Shmuel and thinks that it is the same thing that has happened to him. After becoming close friends with Shmuel and actually growing to like Out-With, Bruno's mother gets fed up and the decision is made that Bruno and his sister Gretel will go back to Berlin with their mother and their father will stay behind to work. Bruno is horribly saddened by this and goes to tell Shmuel who seems even more upset because as he tells Bruno his father is missing. They hatch a plan to dress up Bruno in the pajamas and go exploring for Shmuel's father. The next day is rainy but they decide to follow through anyway. Bruno puts on the pajamas and they search for Shmuel's father without success, as it starts to storm harder the soldiers blow their whistles and Shmuel and Bruno are pushed into a group of people who are being pushed into a big sealed room. The lights go out and Bruno is never seen or heard from again. His mother returns to Berlin heartbroken and after some searching Bruno's father finds his clothes by the fence and assumes what has happened and he is completely destroyed, several months later he is taken out of Out-with and he doesn't care.

I personally wouldn't recommend this to a child, I would recommend it to a young adult. It is a deep book about a disturbing topic.

With the whole conflict surrounding the Holocaust and the devastation of it. Many different conflicts could come from reading this book to a child, and how they could emotionally take it.

I really enjoyed this book, it was well written and intriguing and came from the German perspective of the Holocaust which is rare. I don't always like sad endings but this really got the point across and it was somewhat of a good heartbreak.

My rating: 5 out of 5

ps I also loved the movie!