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

I love to read about the holocaust, and see what these people have experienced, but when I read this book I guess I expected something else. To me it didn't have a general message or theme, and Bruno seemed to complain in most of the book. I had to read it for summer reading but I wouldn't advise reading it.

I thought the book (and movie) were cruel and sad. I know that during the Holocaust it was brutal and sad but they didn't have to make the book and a PG-13 movie that graphic. It was an amazing story, I know, BUT BRUTAL. It gave me nightmares!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas I think is good to be recommended to Jr. high students. Its seems to be written at that level. It does get you to think and ask questions, for the most part that is a good trait in a novel. The book is not to much plain and you are surprised by some even minor twists. The people and events are vivid due to good description, you are provoked to make clear maybe even accurate images in your head. All in all, my interest was eventually sparked in this book, so I would recommend anyone who is a reader to take a glance at this book at least.

I thought the book was a good way of seeing the world the world for what it was back in 1940's threw a set of innocent eyes. I thought the book had to many dull points in the book with the dialoged, some points I don't think need to be in there are the parts with the further. Bruno should have had an idea what was going on the other side of the fence, when reading the book you see he’s not a dumb kid, he should know that his father is mistreated everyone cause he knows where his father works and he knows where his friend Shmuel lives. I thought this book was kind of hard to put down after awhile of getting into it, but the ending I thought was weak cause of the way it ended so suddenly.

It was okay, but it definitely was not what you would expect of a Holocaust book, and I wouldn't recommend it. The main character might only be 9, but no 9 year old it that dumb! He knew absolutely nothing, and if his dad was this big important person (which it never actually says what his job is!), then Bruno should have known something, but he knew nothing. The book was not accurate, and it was really slow, with no action. And the ending was terrible! I guess it had a good moral, but it was not a great book.

I didn't really like the book because it doesn't show the true horrors of a little 9yr old boy living in Auschwitz. It doesn't even have very historical facts on the Holocaust.

This book was very unrealistic, I Couldn't help but get bored of it after a while. It made it very hard to finish and I would much prefer to have read a history book than this.
I'm in high school, and I would definitely not recommend this book to the learning education centre... unless they want the ACTUAL Facts. Twisted to suit the needs of a seemingly average author

John Boyne’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was lacking some important attributes that most good books usually have. Firstly, he used irritatingly simple language. The simplicity of it interrupted the flow of the reading and took away from what the book was actually about. Secondly, the main character, Bruno, was supposed to be young and innocent, but the author didn’t achieve the balance between innocence and unintelligence. No nine year-old could possibly know that little about what was going on. Even if he was sheltered by his parents he might have perceived that there was something going on. The third thing that the book was lacking was what the story was about. A well to-do German family that has family problems is not what grabs a reader’s interest. Weather or not there was an underlying message about life or something, the book was boring and slow moving, going to great lengths to describe unnecessary details.
   The simple language was definitely a big problem. While reading this, a person might find themselves getting bored simply because the words used are simplistic and from a semi-retarded nine year-old’s point of view. This simplicity took away from what the author was trying to say and it made it hard to finish or enjoy the book. The use of the word “Out-With” instead of ‘Auschwitz’ though appropriately childish, was over used and it got old fast. The same thing happened with the author’s use of ‘fury’ instead of Fuhrer, causing the seriousness and significance of that name to disappear.
   Bruno’s innocence came with a price; the semblance of intelligence. Bruno probably could have figured some things out if he only sought after answers. Instead, he decided to accept everything for goodness, like Shmuel. Shmuel was mainly what brought Bruno to an end. Had Bruno stopped, thought about why the people on the other side of the fence looked unhealthy, unhappy and generally not too great to hang out with, he could have at least drawn the conclusion that he didn’t want to be like them. Instead he dresses up as one of them, ignoring the unclean clothes and the starving people, and goes right into the thick of a very very dangerous place. Ultimately this brings about his demise, as with many other stupid people.
   The story is a different story. People usually want to read about something interesting. Not that the book was especially uninteresting, it was just sort of bland. The story centered on a boy in a well to-do German family, and what he thinks is problematic. There were things going on around him, like his mother’s affair, the interment camp and how jews were being treated that were hinted at, but the majority of the story was about how a nine year-old processed things. Mainly what the story was lacking, was differentiation and unpredictability.
   Apparently, this book is meant for both young adults and adults. The simple language made it easier to read, while most of the really important stuff the author was saying was lost, because in order to comprehend the deeper messages, it required more thinking than the language used in the book suggested was necessary. The young adults will read it and not like it because they have to think too much and the story was semi-boring, and the adults will get irritated because of the language and Bruno’s obvious unintelligence and the simple language.