The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a book written by John Boyne. This book’s genre is historical fiction. The book is about a boy at the age of nine, living in Germany during World War II. His father is a commander for the Germans. Hitler moves Bruno’s father and his family to Poland, near a concentration camp. Bruno is very mad about this and hates his new house. There’s no one to play with, and the house is shabby and small. When Bruno goes to his new room he looks out the window. He sees hundreds of people, working in a fence, wearing striped pajamas. Bruno wants to be an adventurer, so he sets out to the concentration camp where he finds a small boy, Shmuel, sitting there. They become friends and Bruno soon learns about the horrors of the concentration camp, and what his father is really doing.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I give it a four out of five stars. It’s a very simple book that anyone can read, even younger readers. It doesn’t have a lot of challenging words, even though it is a sensitive subject. This is not a five out of five because it does not have a lot of stimulating vocabulary. It’s very interesting to see World War II from a child’s point of view. Bruno thinks his father is great, but we all know him to be evil because he is a Nazi capturing Poles and Jews. The reader realizes from early on that Shmuel is a prisoner, but Bruno is not aware of this, instead he thinks Shmuel is just another kid he can play with. For instance, Bruno asks Shmuel through the fence questions like, “How did you get here?” “Why don’t you come for dinner?” and, “What do you do over there?” This makes the reader feel sorry for Bruno and Shmuel, and makes the reader want to find out if Bruno will ever discover the truth.