Book Review: The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

The novel The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was written by an author named John Boyne and was published by Random House Children's Books in 2006. This novel has approximately 216 pages, written in the genre of a fable.

This novel is about a protagonist Bruno whom is nine years of age. He grew up in a rich family with his strict father being the Commandant of the Nazi army. Bruno lives in a five story house (if you included the basement and the little room on top of the house with the slanted window where Bruno would look out) with many servants, his father, his mother and his older sister Gretel in Berlin where he does a lot of never-ending exploring! Bruno loves exploring! He wants to be an explorer when his older but along with that Bruno also loves playing with his three friends Karl, Martin and Daniel.One afternoon after school Bruno came home to see that the maid, Maria was packing his stuff, even the stuff at the back that was nobody else's business in four large wooden crates. He found out that they were moving to somewhere else called "Out-With" (in Poland) for his father's work. Leaving everything in Berlin behind, including his friends, grandparents and his five story house was extremely difficult for Bruno. It was even harder when he arrived at "Out-With" seeing that there was only that house desolated by itself and it only had three stories, Bruno was shocked! There weren't even any other boys to play with! Then one day Bruno saw that there were many people dressed in all the same blue and white striped pyjamas over the other side of "Out-With" behind a gate out a window. With his huge sense of curiosity Bruno decided to go exploring out there. There he met a new friend Shmuel. Shmuel was a Jew that was locked up in concentration camp, his skin was the colour of grey and his eyes were the colour of caramel sweets. With some things in common like having the same date and year of birth which meant that they were the same age they got close quite fast. Every afternoon Bruno would go exploring to the gate seeing his friend Shmuel just like usual sitting on the ground crossed legged. Sometimes Bruno would even sneak some food for Shmuel, but most of the times Bruno himself got a bit hungry along the way leaving no food left for Shmuel. Bruno always thought that behind the gate was extremely fun not knowing the true reality of what was actually happening there. Whereas Shmuel was quite knowledgeable, he knew what was happening to himself and all the other Jews. One afternoon Shmuel told Bruno that his father had gone missing! They both did not know that he was dead so Bruno promised Shmuel that next time he would go and help Shmuel to find his father. That day it was pouring down with rain, but Bruno not wanting to break his promise to Shmuel still went to the gate as usual. When he arrived, Shmuel had a pair of extremely dirty blue and white pyjamas which might have never been washed before for Bruno. Bruno stripped off his clothing and shoes and wore it. On the gate there was a small gap in which Bruno crawled under the get to the other side leaving himself in a complete mess because of the mud. They explored for awhile but they found nothing but just as Bruno was about to go home because he did not want to miss out on the roast the soldiers came and told all the people in the blue and white pyjamas to march inside a room. Bruno was very happy as he thought the soldiers were bringing everyone inside away from the cold rain but he was wrong. After everyone went in, it went dark...

Read the book to see what happened next.

My favourite character in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is none other than the protagonist himself, Bruno. This is because I find Bruno to be very loyal even if at one stage he was not, a very courageous boy with his adventurous side going to explore new things and even though he was a bit of a pain with all the complaints at first, in the end he got use to his surrounding and made the most of it. In this novel, I don't think I can relate to much except for the point that I know how it feels to leave friends behind moving on the a completely new surrounding. It is a extremely hard thing to do leaving me being very upset and lost, maybe like how Bruno felt. But like Bruno, after a while I got use to it and found extremely good friends which I think I will keep for the rest of my life. In my opinion The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was great! The novel is extremely effective and powerful, causing the reader to think about a lot of things after the story has finished. I really enjoyed reading the book even though I was just a bit confused towards the end. My favourite part of the book was when Bruno just met Shmuel. I felt very excited for Bruno as he found a new friend, someone he can talk to and spend time with. My least favourite part of the book would have to be the ending. I know it ties a knot to the story but it just did not work for me. If I could change something in the book it would be that I change the ending a bit and add more information about the Holocaust along the way. This is because if someone is like me, not having much knowledge about the whole event of the Holocaust, it made me stumble quite a bit and made me become confused at the end and the whole situation of it all which might mean the reader will face the same thing as I did.

In conclusion I would definitely recommend The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne! I think this book would be suitable for ages twelve and above just because people aged twelve and below might not understand the story because of the lack of understanding towards the Holocaust. This book would be suitable for any type of person, whether you love history or English, in your teens or a grandparent, this would be a book for you!

Rating: 4.5 stars/5 stars

Keep calm and read on guys,

Wendy Phan~ xx