Book Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boyne, J. (2006). The boy in the striped pajamas. Ember, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random house LLC.

ISBN: 0385751532

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

Set in Berlin, in the year 1942, this story is about a boy named Bruno who together with his family must move away to a home near a concentration camp in Poland because his father got a promotion. Bored, restless, and curious, Bruno wanders off to explore and meets Shmuel a young Jewish boy. Separated by a barbed wire fence, the boys met each other at the same spot for weeks. As Bruno’s mother decided it was time to move back to Berlin, Bruno goes and tells Shmuel about the move, which leads the boys to create a plan for their last day, which leads to tragic consequences.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS

I thought this book was extremely sad but very good read. Boyne did an excellent job of developing Bruno’s character, through his words, readers were able to see how Bruno’s character evolved throughout the story. Boyne portrayed Bruno as a child who was very innocent and naïve of his surroundings, which was appropriate for young adults reading this novel, and made him a very likable character.  Like any boy his age, Bruno did not understand his surroundings or why his new friend was behind a fence wearing pajamas or why as time went by, he began to look gray and thinner. Although this portrayal of Bruno helped readers engage with the young boy, this part of the story isn’t historically accurate according to my research. In fact, young Nazi boys during this time period were conditioned to think the war was a “good thing” and they were well aware of what was happening in Germany during this time.

As for the portrayal of Shmuel, readers really didn’t get to engage with him as much as they did with Bruno, which I felt was sad because the story is a historical fiction during the Holocaust.  Even with this, I had a difficulty getting through the book because characters and the events were very realistic. As I read through each page, I couldn’t help but wonder if this novel was loosely based on a real person. Additionally, I couldn’t hold back the tears especially after reading what happened to the boys. As a mother, I also put myself in the family’s shoes after they realized what had happened, and that was so heartbreaking.  

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Starred review in The Oxford Times (U.K.): "A memorable and moving story."

Starred review in -The Irish Examiner: "An extraordinary book."

5. CONNECTIONS

*Group students into groups of 3-4 students and have find different examples of imagery throughout the story. Have students explain the senses that the examples of imagery they found appeal to.  Challenge students a little more, and have them find other examples of figurative language though out the novel.

*Encourage students to reflect on the novel and think about connections that can be made from the text. Students should find examples of text to text connections, text to self-connections, and text to world connections.

* Have students summarize the novel by creating a comic strip that can be shared with the class.  

*Other books similar to “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”

Gleitzman, M. (2013). Once. Square Fish/Henry Holt and Company. ISBN: 0312653042

Leyson, L., Harran, M. J., & Leyson, E. B. (2015). The boy on the wooden box: How the impossible became possible ... on Schindler’s list. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

ISBN: 1442497823

Book review was written for SHSU MLA course