The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyle

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the tale of a historic event that we are all familiar with, told through the voice of a child with a purity and innocence.

Bruno, aged 9, is forced to leave his big, comfortable house, Grandma and Grandad, and his three best friends and move into a new, much smaller, and not as exciting house, very far away. Despite asking why, no-one seems to give Bruno a straight answer and all he can learn is that it is because of his father's work.

Set around the Holocost, Bruno doesnt understand his father's role as a high ranking Nazi solder at Auschwitz, and befriends Schmel, who is being held in the concentration camp when he sees him walking along on the other side of a fence. Bruno really want s afriend to play with, but as they are unable to play together, they begin talking regularly instead. Sitting at opposite sides of the fence and chatting for hours at a time. Bruno always wishes they could just play.

Having seen the film before reading the book I knew what I was getting myself into but I must admit taht the book diappointed me. Where the film allowed me to be absorbed by a character, I found the characters in the book to be a little flat, and the naïveté of Bruno was, at times, frustrating.

Though written for children, I feel the book dumbs down the subject matter. Considering that this book is likely to be used educationally I feel that Boyle side-stepped his responsibility to represent the horror of what happened at Auschwitz. The book did, however, show the disconnect between the people within the concentration camp, and those living on the outside and for a child reading this book that could be valuable to learn, just as long as this was supplimented by more information.

Not a book I would recommend but the film is deifnitely worth a watch.