I have just finished reading The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne and oh my goodness, I simply had to come here afterward and review it! I had purposefully not watched the movie (though it is next on my list) or read any other reviews on here as I wanted to read it 'cold', and so the only knowledge I had of this book is that it is about a little boy, who was seemingly unaffected by the Holocaust, meets another little boy at the fence to Auschwitz. And in a nutshell, that's what it is. The book starts off with little Bruno, 9 years of age, living in Berlin with his mother and his father and his sister Gretel. Suddenly, they have to leave, as ...  Read the complete review

When The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas came out at the cinema, I was slightly disappointed. Even allowing for the fact that it was aimed at educating younger viewers about the Holocaust, the predictable plot and lack of real emotional impact let it down. For that reason, I put off reading the book for a long time, despite Mrs SWSt assuring me that it was very good. As ever, she was right. When I finally got around to reading it, I enjoyed it immensely (although "enjoyed" is perhaps the wrong word to use in this context) as a fascinating account of hope, despair, death and ordinary life amidst extraordinary events. Bruno is a 9 year old German ...  Read the complete review

Every few years or so, there is a book that comes along which stands in a league of its own in terms of the impact that it has on the reader and the fact that you feel that you've been on a journey where ultimately your outlook on life is somewhat changed. John Boyne's "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" is one of those books and I really could not rate it highly enough. This book is written from the perspective of nine year old Bruno during World War 2. After his family receive a visit from "The Fury" he and his family are moved to "Out-With" where his father is given an important job. Bruno is lonely at Out-With as he has had to ...  Read the complete review

It was seeing adverts for the film version of this that made me want to pick up the book and read it before seeing the film - I'm a big believer in the fact that the book version of most things is usually more detailed and interesting that the film, so I tend to like to read it first. Now, picking up a copy of this book, there isn't a lot about the cover to tell you what the story is about - there are various covers, including one depicting an image from the film , however my copy came with a very simple cover - merely blue and white horizontal stripes on the front cover, with the book title and the authors name. The blurb on the back is very ...  Read the complete review

Now and again I take a break from the usual genres that I read and pick up a book that falls into the category that I call 'books that I think I should read'. In other words, books that have in some way been critically acclaimed or had a lot of fuss made about them, whether old or new. And so it was with The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, a book that had enough fuss made about it in order to apparently warrant a film. Always an interesting sign. The book follows a nine year old boy called Bruno, who is the son of a Nazi commander during the second world war. The family live in a luxury house in Berlin where Bruno plays with his three best friends, is looked ...  Read the complete review