I was massively disappointed in this - but it was never going to live up to the hype.
I had found two things so annoying that they spoilt the whole thing for me:

1. The use of "The Fury" and "Outwith" was a clever tool at first to maintain Bruno's perspective, but the terms were used so often they just became irritating.

2. The ending. It left a sour taste in my mouth (which it should have), but it was obvious what was going to happen from the moment Bruno talked about visiting Shmuel that any greater impact was lost. ( )

Told by a nine-year-old boy whose father has become the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Do to his fathers recent promotion by the Fury the family moves from Berlin to Auschwitz. Their new house on the grounds of the "camp" backs up to a fence where a friendship blossoms and horrors await.

This is a story of innocence and innocence lost during one of the most horrific times in our history. I knew there was no happy ending, but I didn't expect an ending like this one.

This is a YA story that is both touching and haunting.Highly recommended for YA and adults

. ( )

John Boyne's young adult novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas rightly deserves all of the high praise that lead me to read the work in the first place. Told from the perspective of a nine-year-old Nazi officer's son, the story describes life"on the other side of the fence" as Bruno struggles with a sudden move from Berlin to Auschwitz, the heavy military presence in his otherwise civilian life, and the meeting of an unlikely friend.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is no less striking for its charming and simple naivety; indeed, the youthful ignorance and innocence is what makes the novel so endearing, and ultimately heartbreaking. Boyne shows his reader under what circumstances the Commandant of a concentration camp can be seen as a "good man", and the true difference between boys and families living on opposite sides of the fence. ( )

I read this book because I heard so many positive reviews about it and finally I was intrigued enough to get my own copy and find out what all the fuss was about. Everyone kept saying how the ending was a complete shock, how it was enough to haunt you for days. Well after reading the book, I can see what everyone meant. They're right. The ending to this book WILL shock you and haunt you for days. It will affect your sleep because you really won't see it coming.

The book is about a Nazi concentration camp commandant and his family. The story focuses in particular on the commandant's son, Bruno, who doesn't accept the move from their comfortable home in Berlin very well. He has trouble readjusting to living next to a concentration camp (which we later find out is Auschwitz) and there are no children his age to play with. All he has is his sister who teases him and drives him mad. He also has no idea of the Holocaust or what the Nazis are doing to the Jews. He has a very naive view of the world and thinks the Jews are living happily there with their own homes and communities.

While out exploring one day, he comes across a boy called Shmuel who is one of the camp prisoners. The "striped pyjamas" refers to the camp clothes that the prisoners each must wear. They form an unlikely friendship but it is one they must conceal from Bruno's family, for obvious reasons. They discover that they have some things in common such as the same birthday on the same day.

Soon, Bruno is smuggling food to Shmuel and taking great pains to find out that his father never find out that he is speaking to a Jew. If found out, his father's career would be over and the family itself placed in great jeopardy.

Gradually, Bruno comes to realise what is really going on in the camp - and then comes the ending. I was so shocked afterwards that I just couldn't speak. I was trying before the end to work it out, to see if I could guess it but how wrong I was. You can't imagine an ending like this was coming.

This is a book about the war, unlike any others. I highly recommend this - but be prepared for a sleepless night afterwards. ( )

When he and his family move from their large, comfortable home in Berlin to "Out With," nine year old Bruno grieves the loss of his friends and security. Seeking an adventure, Bruno leaves the confines of his new environment and discovers a world very different from his.

While living in Berlin, the "Fury" visits his father and there we learn young Bruno's impressions of the small, rude and nasty "Furor" who promotes Bruno's father to the position of a Nazi Commandant responsible for keeping order, enforcing and following rules.

Set in WWII "Auschwitz" prison camp, the story is told through the voice of naive and innocent Bruno who develops a forbidden friendship with Shmuel who lives on the other side of the fence.

Gradually through his observations and his conversations with Shmuel, Bruno's eyes and heart are opened to the tragic life and death of those who wear the striped pajamas.

Walking a mile in someone's shoes becomes a literal event with surprising consequences.

Highly recommended! ( )