The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

"The author has been begged by holocaust survivors to stop but hasn't. More can be found out in a video about him called Authors Behaving Badly."

"Written from the perspective of a 9 year old German boy, this story set at Auschwitz in 1942 is not a tale for tender ears. Boyne is a masterful storyteller. Even if I had to set it aside for a bit before I could finish the last two chapters. 👍🏻👍🏻"

"Don’t forget your tissue box"

"I recently watched the movie, So I decided why not read the book too. It was an amazing book #historical_fiction #ww2 #war #nazis #sad #tearjerker "

"Listened to the audiobook recently, I saw the movie first and forgot the tragic thing that happened and remembered now while listening to the book. It’s such a good book about a child developing a friendship with no thought of judging the new person of who they are, not letting others’ prejudices and judgments influence them (mostly because they didn’t understand) but it’s tragic for the somewhat unforeseen ending."

"Beautiful and heartbreaking book. Historical fiction is my favorite "

"This is one of the most influential World War Two books if we're looking at how many people have read it. I think there's something decidedly wrong about that, considering this book wasn't written by a Jewish individual or someone who lived through a concentration camp. The author says in an afterword note that because of these facts he decided to write from the view of a child (I.E. him) an outsider trying to make sense of what happened in World War Two. However, he simplified WWII to something almost foreign in his attempt to not dissect anything of value. Children's innocence is real and would have been present in a situation like this, however, growing up is also real and we have negative character development in this novel. Bruno keeps being "naive" to a completely unrealistic level throughout the entire novel. We dance around basically every word surrounding the holocaust for some unknown reason. If we avoid talking about the traumatizing things that would have traumatized the children during this period, aren't we simply demeaning real children's experiences during the holocaust? Now, I want to say that I don't hold this novel's success against him like some do. I think he was just trying to make sense of the war in his own way. I'm just saddened that this novel, out of all the countless ones written, became so popular. If you haven't read much WWII literature before, read "The Book Thief" instead you'll get much more out of it. Primarily read for: Disturbing Books Project"

"Extraordinary. And the audiobook is close to perfect. "

"An Emotional 🥲 read"

"We need books in our public school systems that truly teach of the Holocaust. The 'pajamafication' as it's called, softens the impact middle and high schoolers will receive from real accounts from real survivors. It sympathizes more with Nazis than with victims of the Holocaust."