The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Irish Book Award (Children's, 2007)

224 pages

Rating: 2/5

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.

I don't know what to put down in this review. I'm not even sure what I feel about this book - This isn't one that is going to make any lasting impact or that I'm going to be remembering for long

It is different when you see things from a kids point of view. When you're too young to be expected to understand what is going on and so only get half the information and then with a child's innocence start looking around for your own experiences to fill in the missing blanks. Which is what this story is about.

Then again, if this story is for the YA category, then it doesn't begin doing the Holocaust justice and I'm not sure you want to leave a kid with this version of a tragic history.
A lot of the reviews that I've read slam this book. I find I cannot find any emotion at all. If the author intended for this to be from a different POV and childs' at that, then yes, he did but it could have been so much more.

The writing was simple, which it had to be since it was from a kid's point of view.I'm not sure what there was so much emphasis on Bruno not getting the pronunciations right. Despite being corrected throughout the book, he kept calling Auschwitz as "Out-With" and Der Führer as "The Fury". Even for a kid, that was just plain annoying. And then for a kid who speaks German to think Heil Hitler means "Goodbye for now, have a pleasant afternoon"!!

It's a short 224 pages. Read the book and make your own opinion.