3. Extra Credit Post: The Boy in The Striped Pajamas

Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. New York: David Fickling Books, 2006.

Annotation:

Bruno is German and nine years old. He is mad that he and his family have moved to a new house in a place called Out-With. He doesn't like his new home because he has no friends and no where to explore. That all changes when he meets a nine year old Jew named Shmuel. To Bruno, the boy in the striped pajamas is his friend. What he doesn't realize is that in the eyes of society he and Shmuel are enemies.

Justification for Nomination:

'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' is a captivating story about what the war and the Holocaust were like through the eyes of a German child and a Jewish child. Boyne does an excellent job giving his characters life. I loved the characters Bruno and Shmuel. Bruno has a nieve childish mind that gives a side of mystery to the story. He makes fun of his sister and he mispronounces words like "Out-With" instead of Aushwitz. I think that Bruno's childish characteristics also gives readers an understanding of why it is important for children not to know about details about certain subjects that might hurt their young minds in some way. Shmuel however, is Bruno's complete opposite. He knows a lot about the war, the Nazis, and life in Aushwitz camp. Shmuel is more like an adult because he has had his childhood taken away and because of that, he has had to grow up a lot faster than Bruno. When combined, these characters give the story a realistic feel. The vocabulary and the sentence structure helps readers to understand who Bruno is emotionally and physically as well as what economic class he fits into. It also helps us to understand who Shmuel is and what life is like for him in Aushwitz. I though the ending was sad and heartbreaking, but at the same time I thought it was wonderfully unexpected. Bruno finds out at the end that "Out-With" isn't the miraculous place that he thought it was. Another thing that I thought about the end of the novel was that it was a really great idea to include an interview with the author. It is nice to know that an author can write about a realistic subject that he/she already knows about. I also think that it was a brilliant idea to put discussion questions in the novel. This way readers can talk about their opinions about 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,' the Holocaust and Aushwitz. It also gives readers a chance to learn more about the history of the Holocaust and Aushwitz. This is an excellent adventure with a heartbreaking story. This was my justification for nomination of 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.'
Genre Category: Fiction