The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

oscarinho - The story of the book was called the Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. This story was about a boy who lived during the German Reich in which his father was a commandment of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. He lives with his father Ralf, Mother Elsa, Sister Gretel, and maid Maria. Bruno now goes and starts finding little by little what's going on because he doesn't know about his dad's job. As Bruno meets a boy in the concentration camp called Shmuel who's a lonely boy who lost his father (when his father went and participated in a protest and never came back). Elsa finds out what Ralf's job really is and is mad at him. Bruno decides to help Schmuel to find his father and changes clothes into the "Striped pajamas" and finally finds out how life is for Schmuel and gets into a gas chamber and Bruno's family finds out he's missing and as an SS soldier pours some Zyklon B pellets as the Jews start yelling and banging on the door. As Ralf finds out a gassing has started and finds out Bruno is in there and yells his name but it is already to late Bruno's dead. I think this book is bad as the ending is a sad one. Bruno and the Jewish people did not deserve to die. This book also made me personally sad, but in all the plot and the details of the book were amazing I just think that the ending was bad. I think audience reading this book should be 13+ who are reading about Jews and Nazis. Or who are reading about the world war 2. Also on if people wanted to know how Jewish people actually have to live on concentration camps. An internal conflict is man vs self when Bruno offers a piece of cake. Kolter the lieutenant accuses him of stealing. Shmuel denies saying that Bruno offered him but as Kolter asks Bruno. Since Bruno is scared of Kolter him is fighting against himself to say yes or no. An external conflict is man vs man when a new doctor called Pavel helps the family but Pavel has to watch out because he is Jewish. When Pavel accidentally drops wine on Kolter. Kolter beats him to death. This shows man vs man because Kolter physically fights the man and kills him. The book of this title is called The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. I think this is a good title because it shows what the Jewish people had to wear when they were in the concentration camp. I think a good title would be the boy behind the barbed wire because it would make sense because he is in the concentration camp where he can't escape. I think the theme would be friendship. Bruno made friends with the people his family hated and would come and play board games and give him food. It's also friendship because Bruno had only one friend during the time he lived in the out with (his new home) he would never make fun of him or befriend him because he was Jewish. Lastly it is friendship because Bruno died trying to find Shmuel's dad and stood up for each other even in death.

July 17, 2006
In 1942 Berlin, nine-year-old Bruno returns from school to discover that his father, a high-ranking military officer, has a new job. He announces that the family—Bruno, mother and his older sister, Gretel—is moving "for the foreseeable future" to somewhere described only as "far away." Their journey unfolds through Bruno's eyes—his poignant initial objection is that the new house is not nearly as nice as the one they vacated. Worse still, he misses his friends. Beyond the tall fence separating his yard from an adjacent compound of crude huts, however, Bruno sees potential playmates, all clad in gray-striped pajamas. Though the publisher has kept plot details under wraps (e.g., cover copy and promotional materials include no specifics), readers with even a rudimentary knowledge of 20th-century history will figure out, before Bruno does, where he lives and why the title boy he meets in secret at the fence each afternoon is pale, thin and sad. The protagonist's naïf perspective is both a strength and weakness of this simple, thought-provoking story. What occurs next door is, in fact, unimaginable. But though Bruno aspires to be an explorer when he grows up, his passivity and failure to question or puzzle out what's going on in what he calls "Out-With" diminishes him as a character. It strains credulity to believe that an officer's son would have absolute ignorance about the political realities of the day. But that is the point. How could the world outside the fence not have known, or have known and failed to act on, what was happening inside it? In the final pages, the tension rises precipitously and the harrowing ending, in which Bruno does finally act, is sure to take readers' breath away. Ages 12-up.

November 13, 2006
Through the eyes of an innocent nine-year-old boy named Bruno, listeners become complicit bystanders, observing some of the horrors of the Holocaust. Maloney's soft-toned narration and chipper, believably childlike characterization of Bruno dramatically bring home the fable-like qualities of Boyne's moving text. Bruno's limited comprehension of all going on around him begs listeners, presumably with more knowledge than the protagonist, to glean the fuller story between the lines. When his father, an officer for "the Fury," as Bruno refers to him, is transferred from Berlin to a new post in Poland called "Out-With," Bruno and his family try to adjust. From his new bedroom window Bruno can see a fenced-in camp where all the inhabitants wear striped pajamas. He learns more about this intriguing place when he befriends a boy inside the camp named Shmuel (who happens to share Bruno's birthday). Their friendship progresses dangerously and brings Boyne's tale to a shocking end that is sure to be a discussion starter. A bonus interview between Boyne and his editor David Fickling is included. Ages 12-up.

Starred review from September 1, 2006
Gr 9 Up -Boyne has written a sort of historical allegory -a spare, but vividly descriptive tale that clearly elucidates the atmosphere in Nazi Germany during the early 1940s that enabled the persecution of Eastern European Jews. Through the eyes of Bruno, a naive nine-year-old raised in a privileged household by strict parents whose expectations included good manners and unquestioning respect for parental authority, the author describes a visit from -the Fury - and the family -s sudden move from Berlin to a place called -Out-With - in Poland. There, not 50 feet away, a high wire fence surrounds a huge dirt area of low huts and large square buildings. From his bedroom window, Bruno can see hundreds (maybe thousands) of people wearing striped pajamas and caps, and -something made him feel very cold and unsafe. - Uncertain of what his father actually does for a living, the boy is eager to discover the secret of the people on the other side. He follows the fence into the distance, where he meets Shmuel, a skinny, sad-looking Jewish resident who, amazingly, has his same birth date. Bruno shares his thoughts and feelings with Shmuel, some of his food, and his final day at -Out-With, - knowing instinctively that his father must never learn about this friendship. While only hinting at violence, blind hatred, and deplorable conditions, Boyne has included pointed examples of bullying and fearfulness. His combination of strong characterization and simple, honest narrative make this powerful and memorable tale a unique addition to Holocaust literature for those who already have some knowledge of Hitler -s -Final Solution. -" -Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
Gr. 7-10. Some of the most thought-provoking Holocaust books are about bystanders, including those who say they did not know what was happening. This first novel tells the bystander story from the viewpoint of an innocent child. Bruno is nine when his family moves from their luxurious Berlin home to the country, where "the Fury" has appointed Bruno's father commandant. Lost and lonely, the child hates the upheaval, while his stern but kind father celebrates his success because he has learned to follow orders. Bruno can see a concentration camp in the distance, but he has no idea what is going on, even when he eventually meets and makes friends with Shmuel, a boy from Cracow, who lives on the other side of the camp fence. The boys meet every day. They even discover that they have the same birthday. It's all part of a poignant construct: Shmuel is Bruno's alternative self, and as the story builds to a horrifying climax, the innocent's experience brings home the unimaginable horror. Pair this with Anne Frank's classic diary and Anita Lobel's " No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War "(1998).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)