A Review of 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' by John Boyne

The story of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the jacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about.

If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called 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 such a fence.

Before I read this book, I saw the movie. So I had an idea about what I was getting myself into when I started reading this book.

I’m trying not to drop hints as to what happens in case you have neither read the book nor seen the movie. I’m just going to avoid a commentary about the plot altogether in this blog.

As I started reading this, I couldn’t really tell whose perspective this story was being told from. At first, I thought that the narrator knew everything about Bruno and that was it. But as I kept reading, I realized that the narrator was all-knowing (meaning that he knew what all of the characters were thinking). But the narrator seemed to prefer Bruno. It was an interesting perspective.

This was a sad story. The naivety of this nine-year-old boy is heart-breaking. He really doesn’t know… this and the ending of the story is very saddening.

I think I prefer the movie over the book, but they both appealed on their own levels in their own ways. I highly recommend reading this book.

I would suggest this for a young adult audience because they’ll be old enough to know what went on at concentration camps (clue) in World War II. Generally, I think they’ll be able to handle it.

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Today, I printed off ‘Murder by Rulers’ and I’m going to start editing it yet again. I just casually looked at the file one day and I noticed so many typos in one glance. It was horrendous. Plus, it could use a little updating and some rewriting.

Today, I went to the library, so I can pick out another book to read and review for you. It’s by one of my favorite authors and it looks a lot like ‘Beastly,’ so it seems promising.

I’m not sure if I can keep promising you chapters for my horror story. I’ll try to keep writing it just for you, but I’m not going to make any promises as to when every chapter will be here any more. I don’t want to be your unreliable blogger. I already post at unpredictable levels (maybe I’ll have one post on one day, the next I’ll have four).

Have a good week everyone!

--Jude