It's 1942, Bruno is 9 years old and is not happy to find out that his family is having to leave their comfortable house in Berlin and go to some house away from all his friends. It has something to do with his father being super important and The Fury trusting him with a super important job at Out-With. Once they get there, it's worse than Bruno could have imagined with no one to play with and officers coming and going all the time. The he discovers the fence and there is a boy on the other side wearing striped pajamas who becomes Bruno's only friend, even if he must keep it secret.
As an approachable way to introduce some of the horrors of the concentration camps to children, this book is ok but really, it's best use is as a fantasy book. The horrors are glossed over, Bruno acts much younger than his supposed 9 years with constant mispronunciations of things that would not have been common, especially in his own thoughts, and his sister is both too young too old for her supposed 12 years. The fantasy is really that the commander's son would be allowed to walk right up to the fence and just have these playdates with a child on the other side with no idea why they were there and with no guards anywhere around ever. That does not seem plausible based on the books I've read by survivors. The story itself is almost sappy sweet which, again, does not mesh with the horrors of the time and those living in the concentration camps. It's almost like it's trying to absolve those who perpetrated those horrors of their sins by making it seem like it was not so bad. I'm glad I read it before giving it to my son to read. I don't want that history glossed over.
As an approachable way to introduce some of the horrors of the concentration camps to children, this book is ok but really, it's best use is as a fantasy book. The horrors are glossed over, Bruno acts much younger than his supposed 9 years with constant mispronunciations of things that would not have been common, especially in his own thoughts, and his sister is both too young too old for her supposed 12 years. The fantasy is really that the commander's son would be allowed to walk right up to the fence and just have these playdates with a child on the other side with no idea why they were there and with no guards anywhere around ever. That does not seem plausible based on the books I've read by survivors. The story itself is almost sappy sweet which, again, does not mesh with the horrors of the time and those living in the concentration camps. It's almost like it's trying to absolve those who perpetrated those horrors of their sins by making it seem like it was not so bad. I'm glad I read it before giving it to my son to read. I don't want that history glossed over.
Page count: 216p/22,599p ytd/331,296p lifetime
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