The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne *Stephanie’s Review*

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Where do you even start to write a review for a book like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne? It’s not something you want to call fantastic because the subject matter is so serious. Really what Boyne has done is brilliant. He’s taken the scariest part of WWII, Auschwitz, and scaled it down to something a child can come to terms with. He does this and is still able to do it without all of the horrifying details that go along with it.

Bruno and his family move to the middle of nowhere when his father accepts authority over Auschwitz. Bruno struggles to adapt but makes the best of it and makes friends with a child from the “farms”.

Reading this book written for a child as an adult was difficult but not int he way that you’d think. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas showed that during some of the most brutal years in recent history innocent still existed. Seeing that innocence juxtaposed with such depravity was hard to grasp. I hope to read more of Boyne’s work in the future.

6 responses to “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne *Stephanie’s Review*”

  1. I tried to read this but it really was a bit to sad for me. Great review!

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    1. It is sad. It was a really sad period in our history. 😦

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  2. I wouldn’t have expected a children’s book to tackle such a dark topic, but from your review I gather that John Boyne has a real knack for doing so. I think the extreme contrast between innocence and brutality might be a little too much for me though. I’m more of a HEA kind of girl.

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    1. He did an excellent job. I think it would be a good tool to introduce that part of history to a child. It is a hard contrast. I found it worth the read but I’d definitely avoid it if you prefer to have a HEA.

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  3. This would totally make me cry, and yes even in the darkest times there are moments of light.

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    1. It was a bit much really. It made you think about everything that happened then. It sent me into a deep thought process of “How did it get that far? Why did it take so long before anything was done?” Because really? I just can’t imagine it. 😦

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