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Nov 12, 2007

Brandy rated it:

I hardly know where to begin bashing this book. Do I start with the 9-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister, who read about 6 and 8, respectively? The imperial measurements (miles, feet) despite the German setting? The German boy, raised in Berlin, who thinks that Der Führer is "The Fury" and Auschwitz is "Out-With," despite being corrected several times and seeing it written down? The other English-language idioms and mis-hearings, despite our being told that he speaks More...

60 comments like (127 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2011

Wayne rated it:

I seriously suggest you read about what happened to real children in the Holocaust. It won't fill your thoughts for many days or shock you; rather it will fill your LIFE and make you feel sick to the core of your being.

Paul Friedlander, himself a survivor, recounts in his recent highly praised book the incident of 90 Jewish infants all under the age of five, orphaned after their parents were murdered in a mass shooting.
These children were subjected to indescribable mistreatment More...

23 comments like (38 people liked it)

May 13, 2010

Madeline rated it:

As Michael Kors once sighed to a clueless designer on Project Runway: Where do I start?

Let's open with some descriptive words that sum up this book, and I will then go on to explain them in further detail: Patronizing. Insipid. Smarmy. Just plain bad.

Patronizing: I believe that to write good children's literature, you have to think that children are intelligent, capable human beings who are worth writing for - like Stephen King, who probably thinks kids are smarter than More...

20 comments like (45 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2010

Arlene rated it:

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is truly an amazing yet daunting novel that I will never forget. The author John Boyne did a masterful job of depicting the setting in such vivid detail and exposing the events in a manner that I felt a constant emotional pull as the story unfolded and impending doom lingered on the horizon.

I was recommended this novel a while back while reading The Book Thief, but after finishing that story and experiencing such deep sadness, I knew I couldn’t jump in More...

22 comments like (24 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

e.c.h.a rated it:

SESAK DADA INI

Oh God, biarpun saya sudah tahu akhir kisah ini membaca kisah kehidupan Bruno tetap membuatku terpana, terenyuh, tersenyum dan tak bisa berkata banyak.

Bruno, memandang kehidupan dengan caranya sendiri - cara seorang anak memandang kehidupan yang sebenarnya tragis di tahun 40-an saat rezim Hitler berkuasa. Simpel di mata Bruno tapi menyesakan di mata saya.

Oh Bruno...kenapa? kenapa?

91 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2008

Bill rated it:

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6 comments like (17 people liked it)

Nov 09, 2008

Cheryl added it

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18 comments like (12 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2011

cindy rated it:

Harus saya akui bahwa sebelum mulai membaca buku ini, saya sudah memiliki bayangan tentang isinya, bahwa ini bukan dongeng anak-anak, ini kisah kamp konsentrasi. Oke, bukan masalah, meskipun belum pernah benar-benar membaca kisah kekejaman Der Fuhrer dalam bentuk buku, saya sudah melihat beberapa film tentang ini, Schlinder's List (hiii...masih merinding mengingatnya), La Vita e Bella (yang kocak tp tragis) dan The Pianist (yang sangat menyentuh hati).

Pertama memegang bukunya, kesan More...

7 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 26, 2009

Al rated it:

There is nothing to learn from this book. There is much to dislike. From certain perspectives, it can even be said to be detestable.

First of all, there is the authorial conceit that the work is written from the perspective of a child. The worst example of this come in the use of euphemisms for the Fuhrer ('the Fury') and for Auschwitz ('Out With') which become increasingly irritating as the work progresses. Bruno's 'difficulty' with these words is somehow supposed to charm us, an More...

4 comments like (21 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2008

J-Lynn rated it:

I finished this book yesterday and I am still having trouble forming an opinion--but here it goes. I have thought about it a lot which is generally a sign of good writing, but in this case, maybe I am thinking about it because the book disturbed me.

If I look at the Holocaust historical fiction genre as a whole, I am not sure what this book adds to the group. It does show another point of view, from the child of the Commandant of Auschwitz, but Bruno is so terrifically dense--naive More...

2 comments like (18 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

I'll give it this much. Few books have caused me to actually shake SHAKE in anger. Wow. I think I need to go boil my eyeballs for a while. What was the author thinking?

13 comments like (23 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2008

Endah rated it:

Kesalahan pertama saya dalam membaca buku ini adalah mengira bahwa buku ini sebuah buku cerita anak-anak yang lucu dan jenaka. Asumsi ini saya tafsirkan dari judulnya : Anak Lelaki Berpiama Garis-Garis. Terdengar lucu dan riang. Kesalahan kedua, saya, seperti biasa, melewatkan membaca sinopsisnya yang tercantum di sampul belakang buku. Seandainya saya mau menyempatkan diri membacanya terlebih dahulu, barangkali saya tak akan terkecoh.

Terkecoh? Ya, sebab kiranya buku tipis deng More...

6 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2009

Dianne rated it:

I decided to read this book because a friend told me that, in some respects, it reminded her of my novel, ‘Hitler and Mars Bars’. So I wanted to find out what she meant. The most obvious similarity is that the main character in each book is a German boy who is caught up in the events of the Second World War.
Both books are simply written but effective and moving. Unlike my own book, Boyne’s novel is completely unadorned. Yet it also captures the character’s emotions and the situation More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2008

Milan/zzz rated it:

Well this is book for Young Adults and therefore I must admit that the style was a little bit problematic for me. I guess because I'm only an "adult". It's very simple, very on the level of the main character but after a while I get used to it and I might say that this naiveness was even charming. Big part of the book is like as if we are waiting something (big) to happens, the main thing but I wouldn't say the book is boring; again it was charming.
I usually find myself very irri More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2012

Kelly rated it:

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8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 26, 2010

Bibliophile rated it:

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a Holocaust “fable” by the Irish writer John Boyne, in which a nine-year-old German boy named Bruno arrives at Auschwitz (or as the novel coyly and annoyingly calls it “Out-With”) when his father is named as the camp’s new commandant. Bruno is incredibly naïve (to the point where I began to wonder whether he might not be mentally retarded, in which case he would most likely have been murdered under the Nazi euthanasia program long before the timeline of the boo More...

1 comment like (20 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2011

K.B.L. rated it:

In the jacket summary, the author claims that the book is not for children, (and yet it is found in the children/young adult section) and that the book is meant to teach adults something. Then he states that he "didn't want to tell what the book was about because it would spoil it"--thus there *is* no actual summary...
But by the third chapter, I wondered just how stupid he thought that the readers were. Word usage, such as where they move being "Out With" and "Fury" More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

May 03, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

What an incredible story! John Boyne has created innocent, naïve Bruno and given him a powerful story to tell. This moving book should be required reading for everyone.

Set in the 1940's in Berlin, Germany, the story centers around a nine-year-old German boy named Bruno. His family leaves Berlin to move to the country because his father has been reassigned by the "Fury." Bruno's youth and More...

1 comment like (15 people liked it)

May 16, 2008

Lorraine rated it:

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1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2009

Putri rated it:

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3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2009

Lucy rated it:

Written in the voice of Bruno, a nine year-old boy whose father is promoted up the Nazi chain of command and given the position as director of Auschwitz, a Polish concentration camp, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas exposes the well-documented horrors of gas chambers, crematoriums, savage beatings and starvation through eyes that have no comprehension of this kind of evil. Instead, when he meets Schmel, a Jewish boy his own age sitting on the other side of a fence, he sees a potential playmate wh More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2008

timoen rated it:

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23 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 06, 2008

Tawnie rated it:

Grades: 9 to 12 Genre: Historical Fiction
While Bruno has enjoyed growing up in Berlin, his father has been transfer to “out-with” and they all must move. His new home is out in the country, but there is a strange giant fence in his backyard where there are lots of people in strange striped pajamas. One day when walking along the fence, Bruno meets Shumel who sits on the other side of the fence. The two boys share the same birthday and a friendship is formed. Each day Bruno sneaks off t More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2008

Tyas rated it:

Bruno’s life in Berlin was happy. Not quite perfect, but happy. His family owned a big house, he had best friends, and his father was an important person, wearing a gorgeous uniform with shiny medals on front. And their leader, The Fury (Bruno could never pronounce his name correctly), regarded his father so highly that he appointed him to a great task: taking charge of a place named ‘Out-With’ (again, Bruno could not pronounce it appropriately, no matter how his family taught him the correct More...

8 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 19, 2008

Beth rated it:

I would love to teach this book in my literature class in pairing with studying WWII in social studies. This is the story of Bruno, a naive, 9-year-old boy whose father is a high-ranking Nazi commander at Auschwitz. Bruno befriends a boy on the other side of the fence, but he never understands why they can't play together. While this book is not meant to be historically accurate, it still can incite wonderful discussion in a classroom full of older students. No one would ever anticipate the wa More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jun 21, 2008

Ceci rated it:

I think this is a wonderful book. The naivety and simplicity of the protagonist which affects the story as well is a narrative gimmick... and it works well, throwing the horrors of the holocaust into stark contrast. It's a dark adult fable, and I dare say that an adult reader will get more of it than an adolescent. At times, the narrative is almost like poetry, with the many ellipses and phrases that are repeated over and over again.

I also believe that this is an important book for More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2008

Kelley rated it:

I realize that I keep changing my rating and comments on this book, but I really can't decide how I feel about it. If you do decide to read this book, I suggest also reading the interview with the author found at the end of the book- it adds some new insight.

I've lost sleep over this book the last few nights, listening to my mind's self battle as it bounces back and forth between thoughts and opinions. (I've obviously found the book to be very thought-provoking if I'm still losing More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

Annalisa rated it:

What I really enjoyed about this book was the innocent voice of the narrator. When you're going to approach such a widely written about topic, you have to pick a new angle with which to tell your story. John Boyne told the story from the perspective of a small boy who doesn't understand his surroundings: that his dad is not the hero, what is happening all around him, that he should be afraid. I liked the idea of seeing something we understand through the ideas of someone who doesn't.

More...

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2008

Chrissie rated it:

I've just finished reading The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and although I think there were some flaws in the story, I think it's important to remember that this novel is essentially for children. Flaws include Bruno's incredible naivety about things going on around him...what a Jew was, who the Fuhrer was or the meaning of German words (being from Nazi Germany one would think he would have known these things at 9 years old). I personally could never understand either why Shmuel didn't escape un More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 17, 2008

Roos rated it:

"Duh Bruno...dimana kau nak?"

Bener-bener tidak akan menyangka akan berakhir seperti ini...membaca buku ini diawali dengan dialog-dialog yang polos khas anak-anak antara Bruno dengan Ibunya, kakaknya Gretel dan Ayahnya, dan orang-orang di Outwith. Bruno Sang Penjelajah awalnya tidak begitu suka waktu mereka sekeluarga dibawa pindah dari Rumah di Berlin ke Rumah di Outwith...dia selalu protes pada semua orang yang ditemuinya...tapi akhirnya...dia menemukan teman yang mau mend More...

23 comments like (3 people liked it)

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