The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

by John Boyne
Australian Readers' Challenge listed title.
The author describes this book as a fable, the name given to a simple story with a mesage to impart - like "Slow and steady wins the race." But this book is not so simple, although written in a beautifully simple style. The cover blurb warns that it is best to start this story without knowing what it is about, and there is some wisdom in that. It is also a story whose whole point could be missed if you don't know a bit of the background.

Bruno is a boy of nine (but the book is not for nine year olds) and he is taken away from his beautiful home in Berlin during World War II when his father is given a very important job. Now he must live in a lonely place with just his family. Yet Bruno is an explorer and one day he finds a fence and a friend.

If you are interested in the historical background to this story, or in reading other Holocaust stories, you may like the following books from our library. Be warned that they are not stories for the faint hearted.

Maus by Art Spiegelman is the story of Holocaust victims told in comic book format.
Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti contains many stories and pictures of real children and young people who grew up in Nazi Germany.
Finally, Auschwitz by Pascal Croci is a haunting picture book.