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Jun 30, 2017TEENREVIEWCREW rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is certainly an ambitious novel, but with the level of material it deals with, you'd wish it had cleared a bigger threshold. The premise is fascinating in theory, as it aims to explore how the setting of the Holocaust affects the innocence of a young 8-year old boy. However, the novel suffers. The writing is hardly functional - I wished for better dialogue because each dialogue is a long, expository passage. There's hardly any room for subtlety here. The character arcs are quite one-dimensional, and with such overfamiliarity attached to them, it's quite difficult to root for them or even engage with them for that matter. While the novel can't be called overlong, it could be more compact and just as impactful. Many plot points and characters are loosely written, and it doesn't appear that John Boyne tries to tie them up coherently. The novel does have its share of impactful bits, and the sensory depiction of the setting is quite good. There are portions when the novel is genuinely hard-hitting, especially with the fantastic conclusion, but it's ultimately a novel you enjoy thinking about more than actually reading it. This is more a compliment to the premise and less a criticism of the bland, soulless execution. 2.5/5. @SSGDP of the Hamilton Public Library's Teen Review Board I personally don't enjoy learning about history, because I don't like the graphic details and the fact that there was a lot of discrimination back in history. However for a fictional book related to the holocaust. For the serious topic that this book touched upon it found this book to be very interesting, because the story through a nine year old boys eyes and how he see the life around him and how he sees what happens at Auschwitz concentration camp. However with that being said I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 12 years old. This story is very educational and would help some tweens/teens understand some of the more sensitive topics of the holocaust. Overall I would rate this book a 4/5. It is a great young teen book and has some information about the holocaust that help readers understand what's happening throughout the book. @Em-the-bookworm of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library We all know about the terrible genocide that happened in 1942. Well, John Boyne is able to show how this terrible genocide effected people who were not even of Jewish culture as well. John Boyne makes many indirect references to historical aspects of the concentration camp at Auschwitz during The Holocaust. However, he never directly tells you specifically what was happening in the story that related to past events at the concentration camp. In my opinion, this makes Boyne’s writing very impactful and interesting to read. The characters in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are very different in terms of their personalities. The only people that were similar in their beliefs were Bruno’s father, Lieutenant Kotler, The Fury and all of the rest of the German Nazis. The ending of the book emotionally touched me. Bruno was innocent and did know the terror that he was getting into at the concentration camp. This made me very sad for he was a good kid (along with Shmuel) that shouldn’t have met that fate. John Boyne’s take on a tragic act of racism and discrimination is one that will be in my heart forever. I am so glad that “Heil Hitler!” are not any two words that people in modern society have to hear anymore. The fact that Boyne makes readers infer what is happening instead of simply telling them what is happening makes this book an easy four-star read. @BlingThrash15 of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library