The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

By John Boyne

This book turned out to be completely not what I thought it was going to be about...but instead an amazingly profound book about the Holocaust.  I read The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak in the fall and it is one of the most well-written books I have ever read.  It is also about the Holocaust.  The Book Thief is written from the perspective of Death.  He tells the story of Liesel, a young girl living in Nazi Germany and experiencing life at that time for a middle/low class German child.  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, is told from Bruno's perspective.  Bruno is a nine-year-old boy who's father works for Hitler.  The author uses Bruno's point of view to illustrate how naive and innocent Bruno was to what was happening all around him.  This book ends up being a really profound and thought-provoking book.  I think it would be especially great to read with a child to open up a discussion about the Holocaust.  I'm not sure if it would make much sense without any knowledge of the Holocaust though...so I'm not sure if you would have to give kids some background first and then read the book and talk more about what is happening in the book.  For sure, this would be a book that I would recommend a child read with an adult in order to be able to talk about it.  It's a great read for an adult, too.  It's in no way graphic...the ending is definitely a shocker...but in a completely appropriate way.  Let me know what you think if you read this!