The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Historical / Holocaust
4.3
(9.2K)
John Boyne
Two young boys encounter the best and worst of humanity during the Holocaust in this powerful read that USA Today called "as memorable an introduction to the subject as The Diary of Anne Frank.” 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 to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people 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 from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.
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More Details:
Author
John Boyne
Pages
240
Publisher
Random House Children's Books
Published Date
2008-12-18
ISBN
0307494233 9780307494238
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"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."
"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"
"An Emotional 🥲 read"
M J
Marie J Ervin
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