308 of 328 people found the following review helpful:
A READ TO REFLECT ON
When I bought this book I wasn't sure what to expect; the blurb was very secretive about the content of the book. I was reading it with the thought of passing it on to my year 6 class, to try and lure them away from J.Wilson's teen-reads!
At first, it felt like a light read, for a book which says it isn't suitable for nine year olds; however, it becomes a lot darker the...
142 of 156 people found the following review helpful:
Judging a book by its cover
I have to confess, this is really a review of the cover of the book - specifically the creamy-beige softback edition. The book itself has been extensively reviewed elsewhere, and I, like many, found it superb.
The front inside flap of the hardcover edition reads as follows: "The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we...
When I bought this book I wasn't sure what to expect; the blurb was very secretive about the content of the book. I was reading it with the thought of passing it on to my year 6 class, to try and lure them away from J.Wilson's teen-reads!
At first, it felt like a light read, for a book which says it isn't suitable for nine year olds; however, it becomes a lot darker the further you get into the story. As an adult, you can see beyond what the child sees and hears (this can be disturbing at times). I could not put this book down and read it in two days!
I won't spoil the ending for those who choose to buy it. The book as a whole left me thinking, which is a good thing. I am not sure if I would recommend it to the majority of my 11 year olds;however, I think a mature child would find it a thoughtful read.
I will be passing it on to one or two adults and children; I also think I may read it again in time I think a second reading may bring more subtext to the suface.
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I'm sure that this is a book that most people have now heard of, especially with the film now released. However, it's probably approached with as least pre-information as possible. I prefer the synopsis that the book originally had..
"The story of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. We hope you never have to cross such a fence."
It is listed as a children's book, but it's not for younger children, and it's certainly an adult book aswell. If you haven't yet read it, don't go searching the reviews, just pick up the book, and read it in the way it was intended.
The book is told in a simple manner, reflecting the innocence and naivety of Bruno. I believe it's meant to be read in the same way as a parable or fable, it's not meant to be a historically accurate text. To me, it was a simple, very effective piece of story telling, which brought me to a stand still, made me cry, and has stayed very much in my thoughts.
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I have to confess, this is really a review of the cover of the book - specifically the creamy-beige softback edition. The book itself has been extensively reviewed elsewhere, and I, like many, found it superb.
The front inside flap of the hardcover edition reads as follows: "The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give clues about the book on the jacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about............". The back flap contains a few terse details about John Boyne, and the back is blank.
I knew nothing about the book when I picked it up from a colleague at work, and began reading in exactly the frame of mind suggested above. I was soon immersed in the little-boy world of Bruno. It was soon evident from people's names that he was in Germany (or possibly Austria), and that his father was an important man; but apart from that, I knew as little about the external world as Bruno did; and so it continued for several pages, until gradually the context of the story became clearer.
To put the reader into the mindset of another person is a great literary skill, and John Boyne carries it off very well - reminiscent of Mark Haddon with "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time". Unfortunately, this paperback edition, rather like an over-excited child, insists on giving away both the context and a significant part of the plot on the back cover. I can't help feeling that Mr Boyne must have wept when he saw how his carefully-constructed narrative had been undermined by this clumsy piece of publishing.
I urge the reader to read no more reviews of this book, but to go out and buy (or order) the hardcover edition - the one with the blue stripes - and enjoy a fine and thought-provoking read.
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I am fifteen and have been regularly taught History for about ten years of my life. It was not badly taught and this book certainly didn't teach me anything I didn't know about the Holocaust that I didn't know before - it just strikes from a different angle.
The reason I make this point is because I read a few other reviews of this book before writing my own and a couple of people have said that it doesn't tell you anything new about WW2 therefore John Boyne is clueless, and that the author tries too hard to be moving. I disagree with this because I believe that Boyne was not attempting to teach us, but was describing what he already knew in a different, and slightly quirky, way. I also believe that he did not go out to write an epic but was merely experimenting with a plot and this style of writing - but that does not make the book any less worth reading.
The innocence of his writing is loveable yet infuriating, as more than once I felt a desperate need to shout at Bruno to wake him up when he was at the peak of his naivety. Then again, it is this which makes what is normally a grim and terrible subject approachable... and it certainly beats a three-inch thick textbook!
I easily read this book in a day - but that does not mean this is an easy read. Long after I had finished the book (and the crying had stopped) it still disturbed my thoughts. There is not one type of person which I wouldn't recommend this book to, and even those who do not have a keen interest for History should definitely still give it a go.
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Essentially this is the story of a friendship between two boys, from different backgrounds, set among appalling events. It is truly moving and also deeply shocking.
This is a stunning book, but it's difficult to do justice to it here without undermining the effect. The book works by gradually revealing a situation from the point of view of Bruno, a rather sheltered and naive nine year old, who makes a friend. That gradual revelation helps us discover history - which we might think we know and understand - from a new perspective, so making the events fresh - and horrible. Saying too much about the plot would spoil this and I won't.
There are many touches which make Bruno a very convincing nine year old, but I paused before giving this five stars due to a niggling doubt about whether he wouldn't know just a little bit more about the world than he apparently does: the book is set in the middle of the war, for example, but Bruno doesn't seem to be very aware of it.
But I think that's missing the point. Some reviewers have taken against the book, saying it's insulting, not true to life, unlikely and so forth. I think that they miss the same point. Yes, to produce the effect the author does he has to take liberties with the facts. The reason for that is that we - now - know what was going on at the time, and we've known it so long that we can't remember when we first knew, and familiarity softens that edge. How would you feel if you didn't know, and then found out? That's the experience this book manages to create, and I think the author is to be congratulated, not condemned.
Finally, I read this as a parent to my son - I would recommend that as it gives you a good opportunity to discuss the facts behind the book, but if you are a parent, do read the book yourself first.
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The subtitle of this book is `A Fable', and so I suppose we are not meant to look for too much realism in this Holocaust story. Possibly (so one review suggests) written for children, its subject matter is grim enough; but its tone, especially at the beginning, put me off: it is faux-naive and painfully arch; and there are too many unbelievable aspects of it. The central character is nine-year old Bruno. The first false note is struck when Bruno learns that `the Fury' has big things in mind for his father, who is a high-ranking member of the SS and is in fact being posted, with his family, from Berlin to become the Commandant at Auschwitz. Of course it is ludicrous that a nine-year old in Nazi Germany would have misheard - not just once but persistently - `the Fury' for the Führer or `Out-With' for Auschwitz (the puns don't work in German anyway). In 1943 a little German boy, especially one whose father was in the SS, would have been in the Pimpfen, the section of the Hitler Youth for six to ten year olds, where he would already have learnt to worship the Führer; he would have learnt the notion of the Fatherland, which in this novel seems to puzzle him; he would most likely have followed the campaigns of the German army on maps and would have known (as he doesn't) where Poland was; and he would already have become familiar, at least in the abstract, with the concept of Untermenschen - instead of which he doesn't even know what a Jew is, and, when his sister mentions the word, he asks her whether he and she were Jews! He had lived in the Commandant's house at Auschwitz for a whole year - and we are to believe that he had never heard the word!
Some parts of the book are a little more credible. A child would probably not have known what it was dangerous to say (though I have to say that, as a nine-year old myself in Nazi Germany, I did have a pretty good sense of that.) Many Germans, and especially children, would not have known of the horrors of the concentration camps and would have been as uncomprehending as Bruno was of what they saw: the ghost-like creatures on the other side of the barbed wire fence which separated the camp from the neat garden of the Commandant's house.
Bruno hates his new home. For one thing, there are no other children for him to play with. And then one day Bruno disobeys orders and goes `exploring' along the fence and at the far end and on the other side of it he meets Shmuel - the boy (of exactly the same age as Bruno) in the striped pyjamas - who is sitting there all on his own, and they meet at this spot and talk regularly thereafter for a year. Shmuel understands the difference between their situations well enough, but Bruno is impossibly naive and obtuse in picking up the meaning of what his new friend is telling him, though something tells him that he should not tell his family of these meetings. He remains innocent until the end.
Of course the heart of the author is in the right place; and he does convey the horror of the camps; but I could not suspend my disbelief in Bruno - and without that ability, the book did not work for me either as a fable or as a credible story, and so I have some reservation about this flawed way of dealing with the Holocaust.
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This is a book for children about a very serious subject so as an adult who read this book before giving it to her child to read I am not the best person to review it. That job should be done by a 10-13 year old who is the target audience.
Having said that I found this a reasonably good read. The story was told in a selfish manner of a 9-10 year old boy who only sees things that affect him in his little world. It hints at what is happening around him but never tells you out right.
The final twist is well hiddden and comes as a surprised that had me thinking "no no no, don't" as I had come to care about the character.
I have the distinct feeling that this book will end up on a school ciriculum for 13-14 year olds to write about, review and discuss, it just has that feel to it.
A book worth reading, if you are an adult reading this don't forget you are not its audience so you may be disappointed with some of the more childish aspects of it. As an alternative view to a horrible and sensitive subject for children it is very good.
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The injustices of this world are always most effectively and poignantly portrayed when done so through the eyes of a young, innocent child. Harper Lee showed us this with 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. And more appropriately in the context of this book, the words of Anne Frank also have enormous resonance for us today. John Boyne clearly understands this, as is evident from this fine book. Those critisizing the book on the grounds of being historically innacurate are, I think, missing the point here. And the point is this: this is a novel - a work of fiction. Works of fiction - particularly those that deal with the largest industrialized form of genocide the world has ever known - are written to move us. We must therefore give all writers poetic licence. The truth of the matter is that John Boyne has written a deeply moving novel. While the simplicity of its language is its strength, it also disguises a deftly constructed storyline that has been beautifully thought through. I defy anyone with young children to read the penultimate chapter without shedding a tear. The horrors of war could not be more powerfully evoked. This is a very brave book. One that deserves a place on every school bookshelf.
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Explaining the Holocaust to future generations of children may always be something of a headache. This book, while by no means a rosy tale with a happy ending, may well go a long way in helping explain the Holocaust to children and young people. But it is also a well-constructed story that can be enjoyed by adults just as much as by children. The characters are sympathetically drawn and come alive - they are not the one-dimensional good/bad characters of many novels and films that deal with the Holocaust. I think it should be required reading for history classes.
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I was intrigued about this book and bought it with the intention of giving it to my children, but thought I'd better read it first. I can remember reading "I am David" at the age of about 9 or 10 and being profoundly moved by it. I had hoped that this book would provoke a similar response, but was very disappointed.
Where to start? Apart from the style and writing itself, which I thought very poor, the book is highly inaccurate. We are expected to believe that the son of a high-ranking Nazi official has never heard of Hitler and doesn't know what "Jew" means. Worse than this, the author has taken complete liberty with the experience of children in Auschwitz. The idea that a 9-year-old child could survive in those conditions, and could spend every afternoon wandering off, consorting with the Commandant's son, sitting by an unguarded fence that people can crawl under beggars belief. These and countless other inaccuracies made me very angry.
I think what upset me most about this book is that it is being promoted as a "must-read" book about the holocaust, and for many children may be their first experince of holocaust writings. This "prettified" account of what life was like for a child in a death-camp may be taken as accurate by younger readers with little other experience/knowledge.
Personally, I wouldn't let my children read this. I'll let them read "I am David" and, when they are older, Anne Frank's Diary and Primo Levi's "If This is a Man". "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" shouldn't be on anyone's reading list, let alone a child's.
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