The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Following in the incredibly worthy footsteps of Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed, John Boyne's innovative look at the Holocaust is a quick but powerful read. Whereas Milkweed had a little Jewish boy narrating the Nazi occupation of Warsaw in a completely naive way, and living to tell the tale but ending up forever altered (as he becomes the crazy man on the street corner), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is told by a 9 year old German boy whose father is a prominent Nazi. Bruno's family moves from their stately house in Berlin (with five floors), to much smaller house, with only three floors, at "Out-with", in Poland. As it turns out, Bruno's father is actually the personal commandant to the "Fury", and roughly 50 feet from the house stands a whole city, surrounded by a fence, containing lots of people in striped pajamas. One day Bruno meets a Jewish boy named Schmuel when he is walking the length of the fence, and as the little boy (who shares the same birthday with Bruno) describes what life is like on the other side of the fence Bruno does not really follow, and badly wants to be a part of the action (which he is sure will involve some new friends). One final day Schmuel brings some striped pajamas for Bruno so he can visit their city, and in doing so the boys become part of march that leads to a cold, dark room. The ending is predictable but striking nevertheless, and the family never hear from Bruno again (and as they do not know about Bruno's secret friendship, it takes them awhile to figure out where he is).

And that's the end of the story about Bruno and his family. Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again.

Not in this day and age.

As far as last lines go, that's a damn good one. It's sarcastic but in such a subtle way that some people might take it to be true, which adds all the more complexity to it. To be left with the thought that not only did the father inadvertently kill his own son, but that atrocities such as those during World War 2 are still occuring all over the world, and will continue to do so until we kill ourselves off the face of the planet, is in my opinion really great stuff for a kid's book.

And by the way, after visiting Boyne's website I found out that not surprisingly, the Mirimax boys are making a movie out of this novel, and while wonderful movies like Life is Beautiful have been made on this subject, I am not optimistic about how they will treat the ending (depending on whether it is billed as a children's movie or not). If it's anything other than the two little boys marching to their death, and the reader being left without any sense of hope, I will be very very unhappy!