The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Book Review
**SPOILERS**
I had the pleasure of reading this book and watching the movie since I noticed it was on Netflix when I finished. It's a heartbreaking story about a 9 year old boy named Bruno who's father is a Nazi soldier who moves the family from Berlin Germany to Poland after a promotion. Bruno befriends a boy in "striped pajamas" naive to the treachery that is really taking place in the world around him.
The movie really completes the thought of the book. The book was short and, well.... bittersweet I might say. I felt that even though it was from the viewpoint of a 9 year old, that it made it lack detail needed to really get the idea across. That was why I said the movie really completes the thought even though events happened kind of differently than in the book.
**SPOILER ALERT**
Bruno befriends Shmuel who is a 9 year old Jewish boy entrapped in a Polish concentration camp. All the boys really do is talk when Bruno escapes the house to the fence that divides them not understanding that they are meant to be enemies. He being the sun of a Nazi Commandant and Shmuel a prisoner.
The end of the book stung but the dramatic effect it had in the movie broke me. Bruno escapes into the concentration camp to help Shmuel find his missing papa and they get stuck in a match to the gas room. They get gassed hand and hand together. As a mother of an almost 8 year old son myself, I couldn't handle it when watching the movie and broke down in tears cuddling my son to fall asleep.
**SPOILER END**
I had less than a week to read a book before I am due back at work on Monday April 20th, 2020. That took me three days to read. I can see why it is targeted towards teenagers because it was very vague and you needed to be able to think like a normal 9 year old. It was a very good book though after watching the film which was extremely sad.
