The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Author: John Boyne
Pages: 216 pages
Rate: 10 out of 10


If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy named Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.


Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one.


Bruno is a nine-year-old boy who lives in Berlin, Germany with his father, his mother, and his twelve-year-old sister, Gretel. Recently, the Fury has come over to dinner and Bruno's father is supposed to be addressed as "Commandant" from now on. A few days later, Bruno finds their maid packing up his belongings. 


Bruno moves to Out-With, and he is as lonely as ever. From his room, he can see a fence and people in striped pajamas inside of it. One day Bruno decided to go exploring. He walked along the fence and suddenly a figure came into sight- a boy named Shmuel who lives inside the fence. The two boys spend their afternoons talking to eachother through the fence, sharing their lives with eachother and becoming best friends.


This novel is nothing like anything I've ever read before. I loved how the author could put a picture in your head. Another thing I loved was that the author didn't have to do much explaining because you obviously knew what happened even though the author didn't tell you. I also liked how I got such anger towards certain characters (like Lieutenant Kotler: I hated him so much!  And then liked Shmuel: I wanted to give him a great big hug and tell him everything was okay.)  This novel definitely give you a lot of anger and emotion- the Holocaust is a really hard topic talk about and to not get upset about. I would recommend this novel to somebody mature enough to handle the Holocaust- probably somebody twelve years old and up. This is a novel that I think everybody should read once their old enough to read it! I gave it a ten out of ten because Bruno and Shmuel's friendship was so touching and I loved everything about this novel- even the anger that came with it.