The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Novel: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Author: John Boyne
Genre: Y.A. Literature
Other fictional works by Boyne: The Terribly Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket, The Absolutist, The House of Special Purpose, Noah Barleywater Runs Away, Mutiny of the Bounty, Next to Kin, Crippen, The Congress of Rough Riders, The Thief of Time, The Dare, The Second Child
Please visit John Boyne's website for a complete list of works beyond this selection of fiction. 

 I've read so many works of both fiction and non-fiction about the unimaginable happenings of the Holocaust. John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is, thus far, my favorite. He paints a picture of words, creating the life of a child, Bruno, whose father is a ranking officer in Adolf Hitler's army. Due to the obligations of his job, Bruno's father is required to relocate his family from comfortable Berlin, Germany to a location which the reader can later infer is Auschwitz. Since Bruno is merely eight years old his biggest concern is the lack of other children he'll find in the country. Almost immediately,  Bruno discovers a farm from his bedroom window where there are so many children. Despite the very odd fact that all of these children are wearing the same striped pajamas, he can hardly wait meet them. Shortly after moving away from Berlin, Bruno does meet a boy, a boy in striped pajamas name Schmuel. The only problem is that Schmuel lives on the other side of farm's fence. This new friendship will take Bruno on an adventure unlike any other he's yet to be a part of, one from innocence to revelation. Bruno's adventure is subsumed by the cruel and almost daily occurrences on Schmuel's side of the fence.

Boyne's novel is a quick read and would work perfectly in a unit about the Holocaust. Pair this piece of literature with The Diary of Anne Frank. The two books would offer an incredible opportunity for students to learn and study perspective. From Boyne's novel, students will get an eight year old German boy's perspective who is unwittingly a victim of the Holocaust. From the pages of Frank's diary, students will receive the perspective of a teenaged girl, also victimized by the Holocaust, but in an entirely different manner.