JuniorBookWorm.com

Ravi's book review of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

 

  This is a little marvel of a book, filled with sadness and happiness. It is about a concentration camp, in Germany, at the time of Hitler. The two stars of this book are Bruno, a boy of nine. He is German and, at the start of the book, he is living in Berlin, but his father gets promoted in the army and they find themselves moving to the countryside.

  The other star of this book comes later. His name is Shmuel. He is a Jew and lives in the concentration camp; he is also nine.

  They become friends by meeting at the fence that surrounds the concentration camp and stops the Jews from getting out.

  The book is shrouded in uncertainty, which builds the tension for the final punch that the book delivers in the

final pages. The book will stay in your mind for a long time after you have read it.

    By Ravi Harinder Veriah Jacques

We agree with Ravi. It was also very good of him not to spoil the shocking ending. It has been made into a film, but I have not seen it yet. Many people were moved by it, I heard. But BBC's Anne Frank seems to have made more of an impression. The Holocaust has inspired many novelists but having the story told my the son of a Nazi commandant was truly original.

Is he old enough to read that?

I was amazed when I called upon boys from Years 6 and 8, at a London school, to list their top ten books of 2008 to find the following list. I was really impressed by the sophistication and length of some of these books. I was delighted that a boy of ten or eleven is reading Dickens and Orwell. In an age when instant amusement can be found on the internet, it is a relief to know that boys are still reading and reading terrific books.
 To get a sense of this child, I urge you to read his review of the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which we have previously reviewed in audio form.

1.  The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne.

2.  BRISINGR by Christopher Paolini.

3.  Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

4.  Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

5.  Animal Farm by George Orwell.

6.  A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

7.  Crusade by Elizabeth Laird.

8.  The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

9.  Singing for Mrs Pettigrew by Michael Morpurgo.

10. Lionboy, The Chase by Zizou Corder.