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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
A Fable
by John Boyne
Hardcover: Sep 2006,
224 pages.
Paperback: Oct 2007,
240 pages.

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First book/First Novel


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Rated 3 of 5 of 5 by Cloggie Downunder
not as good as the Book Thief
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the 5th novel by Irish author John Boyne. It is a holocaust tale from a different perspective: that of the naïve and innocent young son of a concentration camp commandant. He asks his father when they arrive if his father has done something bad at work to be punished in this way, being sent by the Fury to this awful place, Out With. Bored, and missing his friends in Berlin, Bruno eventually sets out to explore, and meets, on the other side of a big fence, a boy in striped pyjamas. It is a friendship with tragic consequences. The device of using a child’s narration to describe something he cannot understand, but that is perfectly clear to the adult readers, is a clever one, but some glaring inconsistencies make this story less credible than it could have been, and perhaps detract from its strength. Bruno seems too naïve for a German 9 year-old in 1943, especially about Jews and Hitler; the idea that Shmuel has the time and opportunity to sit alone by the fence daily seems very unlikely; that the fence is not regularly patrolled, and that it has a gap the size of a small boy, again unlikely; the other children in this novel also seem far too naïve. The Fury and Out With, I can accept as a literary device, and these are effective, in their way. Inconsistencies aside, Boyne does depict the setting very skilfully and builds the main character well. As a Holocaust fable, I guess it gets a message across, but I’m not sure for whom or what exactly that message is: maybe, tell your children the truth, don’t try to protect them from uncomfortable facts? I enjoyed reading it but I thought The Book Thief was much better.

Rated 3 of 5 of 5 by Drishti Jain
The boy in striped pajamas
According to me, I didn't found this book very interesting as it consisted of too many characters by which I got confused...this is a good book too for those who like suspense and horror...by the way I didn't expect horror, but it is in the end...I didn't like the book much but it's good for small children...that's why I rated only 3 out of 5...all the readers must read"GODFATHER" by MARIO PUZO....it's an excellent book I think.. :-)

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Waverley School yr 7
The boy in the striped pyjamas
This book was quiet enjoyable we read it as a class in year 7, it is based on a boy that is German and a boy that is a Jew and how they communicate as different citizens how they react as their generations being enemies???? rate: 4

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Khamare
Truly One of The Best
This book is one of the best books I have ever read. It is easy to understand and with every word you read, it encourages you to read more and more.It is cleverly written and displays the horrors of the holocaust in a subtle way. It keeps ahead of you , until it delivers the last final pages , which are heartrendingI thought it was a great book. It is almost one of a kind , and the author, even though the book being less than 280 pages long , put two years of effort into writing it. This book was truly worth my time reading.

Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by rayray
not so good.
I didn't really like the book because it doesn't show the true horrors of a little 9yr old boy living in Auschwitz. It doesn't even have very historical facts on the Holocaust.

Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by Wright
Rather Poor...
This book was very unrealistic, I Couldn't help but get bored of it after a while. It made it very hard to finish and I would much prefer to have read a history book than this.
I'm in high school, and I would definitely not recommend this book to the learning education centre... unless they want the ACTUAL Facts. Twisted to suit the needs of a seemingly average author
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