Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Just a little fact about me is that I am now a college cheerleader! Tryout's were today and I am one of 23 girls and a boy who have made the squad out of 40. So I'm a little tired from tryout's all day, but no time for napping because my day is just getting started. I have many things to do tonight including a Goo Goo dolls concert at my school, but I wanted to make time for anyone who reads my blog. Here goes.

I'm questioning this book.

For those who have never heard of this book, it's a simple read. It's a tale of 9 year old Bruno in the times of Nazi Germany and a young jewish boy who lives on the other side of the fence named Shmuel. Bruno's father is assigned to be head honcho at the concentration camp Auschwitz, or as Bruno likes to say, Out-with. Everyday these two boys meet at the fence and create a bond of friendship between Jew and non-Jew like never before. Bruno does not fully understand about the 3rd reich, Jew's, camps, Hitler, and the war. Because of this naive thinking he is able to see and love Shmuel for who is as a person.

Bruno often does not use correct words such as Out-with for Auschwitz. He refers to his mean older sister as "The Hopeless Case" and the Fuhrer is "the Fury". The book is extremely repitive, like a children's book. For example, Bruno will repeat throughout the book "...even the things that he'd hidden at the back of the closet and were nobody else's business" multiple times. This book is a story about a young boy who does not see 'Jews' and 'party members', he see's 'good people' and 'bad people'.

Overall, the book was only alright in my opinion. Was it a page turner? Not for me. Did it have strong characters? if by strong you mean detailed, than yes; if by strong you mean original and enticing, than no. I would recommend you only read this book if you're not sick of Nazi Germany novels taking over the publishing industries. I'm the first one to pick up a novel about World War II, but this was frankly not  even in my top 20.

I don't think John Boyne did the Holocaust justice. I've done some research on this particular novel and some Holocaust survivors are quite insulted by the simplicity and the sugar-covered-rainbows they try to paint over the whole experience. I would say that it does do a great job of giving emotion to a reader, which doesn't usually happen with 9 year old characters. I understand that the book is supposed to be from the perspective of a privileged German child of a very important party member, so I suppose that his experience wouldn't be as horrifying and dramatic compared to an actual Holocaust survivor, but it was still way too sugar-coated.

For example, Auschwitz is recognized as the worst camp ever created at the time. Bodies were decaying and rotting, and even the towns could smell the stench from multiple miles away. To write that Bruno has this camp in his backyard and still has no idea what is going on is completely insane to me. Also, it's unrealistic that Shmuel, a boy living through the terrors of Auschwitz (with top security and most brutal camp of them all) is able to sneak past guards and make it to the same spot in the fence every day is extremely fictional.

So here is where my real questionable beef comes in. All across America middle level education schools are incorporating this book into their curriculum. I'm not sure whether it's better to hand this book to them for an "introduction" to the Holocaust (so as not to scare them with all of the terrible horrors of Hitler&friends right away), or if this book is a complete disgrace to those who lived through the experience. I remember my first book about the Holocaust was The Diary of Anne Frank, and as students we took the novel and all of the circumstances in that book very seriously. It was up to our teachers to present the information factually and let us know that this happened.

Here are my questions:

Should middle school students read this book although it's highly unrealistic and does not do justice (in my opinion) to the experience of World War II and it's victims?

Is this novel more fiction than historical fiction?

What is the best way to present this information without losing any gravity while not scaring children?

Overall, I'm glad that I got a chance to read it and i'll probably see the movie too. I'll admit that I teared up at the end when... well you can read that part. I probably wouldn't read it again all the way through just because the style of writing is not serious, especially for a topic so grave.

One praise I will give it: you may not love what they do, but you will love these boys.

Lou