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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
The story of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, 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. (Although 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 cross such a fence.
I want to start by saying that I found this a very effective book, albeit a shade too emotionally manipulative.
John Boyne's central character of Bruno takes us through the upheaval of having his 'normal' life in Nazi Berlin upturned when his father is given a new and apparently highly pretigious job in a place Bruno calls 'Out-With'. Through flashbacks, we get the background to why this move is necessary and the effect that this has on Bruno's family. I think the flashback involving Bruno's grandmother is particularly well-handled as we are shown a woman deeply troubled by the path that her son (Bruno's father) has taken and finally driven to speak her mind.
'Showing rather than telling' is very much evident throughout the book, particularly when the focus shifts to what's going on in Out-With. Reading this as an adult, I'm uncertain as to how quickly a child would catch on to what is actually happening to Bruno and more particularly, his friend, Shmuel. I also think that the implied affair between Bruno's mother and the bullying Lieutenant Kolter is perhaps a shade too subtle and personally, I questioned its necessity for the plot (not least given the obvious age difference between those characters and because I wasn't quite convinced by the reaction of Bruno's father).
Where I do think that Boyne succeeds is conveying the horror of the violence without ever showing it on the page. This is particularly effective in the scene where Kolter takes out his rage and embarrassment at having revealed his father's disloyalty to the regime on Pavel, the Jewish doctor forced to wait on Bruno's family at dinner. Boyne doesn't tell you what Kolter's doing, instead conveying it through Bruno's shock at the sight, his recognition that what Kolter is doing is wrong but also his confusion as to why neither his father nor his mother are trying to stop it.
I think that the book is emotionally manipulative in the sense that once you finish it, you question how much of Bruno's ignorance as to what was going on in Germany and Out-With is credible. Certainly as a 9 year-old boy, I'd have expected him to know that 'Fury' was not the correct term for Hiter, what the Star of David represented and that Out-With is actually Auschwitz. I was also slightly uncomfortable that Boyne chose to set the book against the background of the most notorious death camps because I don't think you need to fictionalise the horror in order to bring what happened to life.
Saying that, I found the ending to be powerful and very well-handled and I admire the fact that Boyne is not afraid to leave the story on a frightening note.
The Verdict:
I wonder if this would go over the heads of children under the age of 10 and at times I think it's a little too emotionally manipulative, but this is nontheless a book that I'd definitely recommend to anyone wishing to introduce their child to the subject of the Holocaust in a way that brings home the horrors without going into detail on the brutality.
The story of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the cover, 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. (Although 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 cross such a fence.
I want to start by saying that I found this a very effective book, albeit a shade too emotionally manipulative.
John Boyne's central character of Bruno takes us through the upheaval of having his 'normal' life in Nazi Berlin upturned when his father is given a new and apparently highly pretigious job in a place Bruno calls 'Out-With'. Through flashbacks, we get the background to why this move is necessary and the effect that this has on Bruno's family. I think the flashback involving Bruno's grandmother is particularly well-handled as we are shown a woman deeply troubled by the path that her son (Bruno's father) has taken and finally driven to speak her mind.
'Showing rather than telling' is very much evident throughout the book, particularly when the focus shifts to what's going on in Out-With. Reading this as an adult, I'm uncertain as to how quickly a child would catch on to what is actually happening to Bruno and more particularly, his friend, Shmuel. I also think that the implied affair between Bruno's mother and the bullying Lieutenant Kolter is perhaps a shade too subtle and personally, I questioned its necessity for the plot (not least given the obvious age difference between those characters and because I wasn't quite convinced by the reaction of Bruno's father).
Where I do think that Boyne succeeds is conveying the horror of the violence without ever showing it on the page. This is particularly effective in the scene where Kolter takes out his rage and embarrassment at having revealed his father's disloyalty to the regime on Pavel, the Jewish doctor forced to wait on Bruno's family at dinner. Boyne doesn't tell you what Kolter's doing, instead conveying it through Bruno's shock at the sight, his recognition that what Kolter is doing is wrong but also his confusion as to why neither his father nor his mother are trying to stop it.
I think that the book is emotionally manipulative in the sense that once you finish it, you question how much of Bruno's ignorance as to what was going on in Germany and Out-With is credible. Certainly as a 9 year-old boy, I'd have expected him to know that 'Fury' was not the correct term for Hiter, what the Star of David represented and that Out-With is actually Auschwitz. I was also slightly uncomfortable that Boyne chose to set the book against the background of the most notorious death camps because I don't think you need to fictionalise the horror in order to bring what happened to life.
Saying that, I found the ending to be powerful and very well-handled and I admire the fact that Boyne is not afraid to leave the story on a frightening note.
The Verdict:
I wonder if this would go over the heads of children under the age of 10 and at times I think it's a little too emotionally manipulative, but this is nontheless a book that I'd definitely recommend to anyone wishing to introduce their child to the subject of the Holocaust in a way that brings home the horrors without going into detail on the brutality.
