What readers think of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, plus links to write your own review.

This is the best book Ihave ever read!! Absolutely amazing! John Boyne is so talented! I could read this book over and over again!

I have the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas ( the adult one). My friend at school's mum had this book and said that it was really good . Normally I don't like reading and so far ( I am 12) I have read only 2 books that I have enjoyed this being one of them. It is such a fantastic book, my mum and dad thought hat it was great because it is about what really happened in the war. At the end it is quite sad but still very good. I really enjoyed it and would really recomend it to people who do not like reading. And every one else as well.

I could not put this book down. That was how excellent it was.

It is always good to have a friend that you can trust. A true friend is a good listener and who you can share your thoughts and feeling without worrying whether they will judge you or tell other people about you. You should be able to trust your best friends, particularly when you are in need of someone the share your problems with. A true friend is someone you can confide in without fear of being judge or betrayed.

Bruno and Shmuel’s friendship is strange and genuine. Bruno confides in Shmuel, at first, because he is lonely and innocent. However, their friendship grows into something authentic which cross the boundaries of race, religion, and culture. Over the course of the novel there are times when the friendship is tested, threatened, and almost betrayed. Finally, Bruno and Shmuel remain true to their friendship.

Good book. Read it when I was nine. Don't really get why people claim that people under 13 won't understand it. Plus, it's not violent, so it's suitable for everyone above 8. The characters in the book are slightly too immature for their age though.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a lovely book that gave me made me feel so many emotions at once. I loved this book because it explained everything exactly how a 9 year old would see it.

This book was quiet enjoyable we read it as a class in year 7, it is based on a boy that is German and a boy that is a Jew and how they communicate as different citizens how they react as their generations being enemies???? rate: 4

This is a book that is interesting on a number of levels. It isn’t particularly scholarly, nor is it intended to be. It isn’t particularly complete in the historical sense either. It isn’t intended to be. There are many things it isn’t – a novel, a children’s book, a short story. In fact, as a fable, I wasn’t even sure, initially, it did that very well. But, I changed my mind.

As a fable, this little book isn’t compelled to be thorough or complete. It needs only to take the moral, and the characters central to it, and make the point. So of course it doesn’t accurately name Auschwitz or the Fuehrer. It isn’t supposed to. And, so what if it doesn’t deal with the Nazi social hierarchy completely, excluding the other families and children who were actually there. It isn’t supposed to.

In the same sense, Bruno isn’t supposed to be an inquisitive, bright nine year old child – the moral to the story wouldn’t be as poignant if he was. In fact, the author employs the fable ingeniously in having Bruno, who as a nine year old could be more inquisitive and even worldly, remain completely naïve. If that is too much a leap for an average reader who doesn’t understand fable, then there is also an option to regard Bruno as impaired. Auschwitz could be Out-With, and the Fuehrer, the Fury, due to a speech impediment (he insists he is saying the same thing as his father and his sister at the various times they correct him) or another learning disability.

In a fable about Nazism generally, and Auschwitz specifically, that focuses on the Nazi instead of the Jew, there is really no redemption, either. In the end everyone is undone – Bruno, Schmuel, the Commandant, the wife, the perfect young Nazi Lieutenant, and the sister – and it’s interesting to see just how it happens.

The reader should be sure to finish, or begin, with the author’s note. There might be a tendency to discount this book otherwise.