The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
By: John Boyne, 2006

Naive innocence meets one of the greatest evils in history in this amazing, heart wrenching story told from the unique perspective of a nine year old boy, Bruno, whose father is a Nazi Commandant during WWII. We follow Bruno from his home in Berlin (where he has "three best friends for life" and is happy) to his new home where he must move with his family as his father is being promoted to a new position by "the Fury". We continue to follow Bruno through his every day life of adjusting to his new surroundings. An explorer at heart, Bruno takes to wandering the grounds. It is his love of exploration that led him to the fence in the first place where he found something truly worth finding.

This book is an amazing work. Not only is it well written and flows perfectly but it also has a simple, yet deep and meaningful, storyline. I love how not everything is explained in great detail, leaving some things to the imagination. There is one instance in particular that was touched upon in the book (I'll let you read it for yourself) but was never made a big deal over or devoted much writing to....it was written as a passing instance when really it was quite important to the story....but it is still something that you understood fully. I respect the lack of much detail in certain areas of the book because the author is not insulting your intelligence by feeling the need to be wordy in explaining everything. The book is not overly descriptive rather straight forward and to the point which also makes it a very fast read. It is a little over 200 pages and can easily be read in a day or so. Just when you think that you know where the book is heading it takes you in a whole other direction that you may not expect at all...I know that I didn't. This is a new favorite of mine and I am giving it an overall rating of 5 out of 5 hearts. Not only is it well written and told from a unique perspective but I believe it to be a very important story that I hope to see read throughout generations to come.