Reading List

Reading List

If you read 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and you liked it he are other books you may enjoy.

I Have Lived a Thousand Years: is a book about a girl who was put into the death camp, Auschwizt. It is about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps and how she survived it.

Number The Stars: is about 2 girls, one of them Jewish and one of them isn't. When the Jewish girl gets caught, the other one goes to try and save her.

The Kite Runner: is about a boy who befriends their families' servant. It is set in Afghanistan and is very sad.

Alternate Ending

An alternate ending to the boy in the striped pyjamas:

Bruno and Shmuel manage to find Shmuel's papa and don't go into the 'parade'. Bruno and Shmuel escape 'out-with' and Shmuel runs away with his papa. Bruno goes back to Berlin with his mother and Gretel. Bruno finds Shmuel and his papa in Berlin. 

"What are you doing here?", asked Bruno.

"I remembered you were here," said Shmuel.

Bruno gives them food and water and Shmuel and his papa go back to Poland and escape. Later on Bruno's father decides he wants to go back to Berlin and quits his job. 

Bruno Journal Entry

When I first came to Out-with, I already decided I didn't like it there. Even now, I don't know why we had to move from Berlin. The children outside are very strange, they are all wearing the same striped pyjamas. They also all live in the same place. I wonder why father said they were less than human. All the soldiers are very rude and I don't like them. Gretel is always talking to Lieutenant Kotler. I don't like him, he seems so serious. When i fell off the swing, and Pavel fixed up my knee, he said he was a doctor. I don't believe him, he is just the chef. I wonder why Mum took credit for it,  that was very unkind. I really don't like Outwith, I hope we can move back to Berlin soon.  

Themes and Issues

The main theme in The boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the Holocaust and the Nazis. Bruno is still a young boy, and he doesn't know much about it. He is an unreliable narrator. Throughout the book, it gives clues about who his father is, and why they had to move. One of the key issues is Bruno wanting to go back home to Berlin. He tries to find out why they had to move house. Another key issue is the people who live next to him. Bruno doesn't know much about it but when he tries to find out more his father says they weren't human. So far in the book, Bruno is still confused and doesn't know much although you can tell from the clues it gives. Other books that are about the Holocaust are The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and The Book Thief.   

How I think the book will end

I think 'The boy in the striped Pyjamas' will end with the war ending and the Jews in the deathcamp set free. Bruno's father dies and Bruno's family goes back home to Berlin and brings Shmeul with him. Another way the book might end is the Jews will be killed and Bruno will realise how bad war is. Bruno tries to stop his father and is put into the deathcamp for a few months, when he devises a plan to help some of the Jews escape. When his father took him out, he was forced to help him but some of the Jews managed to escape. In the book, so far Bruno still doesn't know much about his father's job, the deathcamp and what they are doing in 'out-with'. I think later on he will find out about all these things.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

By the end of the book, the character who I think will change the most is Bruno. In the part I am up to, Bruno is still an innocent little boy who doesn't know much about his father's job or where he is living. He doesn't realise that he is living next to a death camp. I think at the end of the book, he will realise what his father's job is, where he is living next to and what will happen to the people living next to him. I think he will realise his father is a nazi, that he is living next to a death camp and what happen to the people who are living in the death camp. I think he will be saddened by that and try to protect them by talking to his father.  By the end of the novel I think he will try to stop his father from killing all the people in the deathcamp.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - Author Biography

John Boyne is the author of "The boy in the striped pyjamas". He was born in Dublin, in 1971 and he was awarded the Curtis Brown award when studying at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In the early years he many wrote short stories and his first short story was "The Entertainments Jar". It was shortlisted for the Hennessy Literacy Award. "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" won 2 Irish book awards, Bisto Book of the Year and was shortlisted. In an interview, John Boyne says that the inspiration of writing "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" came when he got an idea about two boys separated by a fence. Another reason that he wrote it was to raise awareness of genocides and crimes against humanity. Some other books he wrote are The Thief of Time,The Congress of Rough Riders, Crippen,This House Is Haunted and Noah Barleywater Runs Away.