The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

OK, before anyone judges my harsh review of this much beloved book, I have to defend my two star review. My first complaint is the voice. I have grown up in a family of 8 children, I have many cousins with young children whom I am close to, I babysit, and I am generally very familiar with children. This book felt like it was going between the voice of a two and twenty year old. That took away from the story to me.

I am also well travelled and have German family. The Holocaust has long fascinated me and I still have memories of visiting concentration camps at a young age and being physically ill over what I learned and saw. One of my favorite movies is La Vita é Bella (please watch it). This book did not line up with a lot of the history of WWII that I have read. Also, the extreme ignorance of the main character is unbelievable.

The concept is good and I feel like putting children in the context of some of the world's greatest tragedies is a powerful tool, I just felt like this was used as a gimmicky tool to make people cry. The last line of the book rubbed me wrong and I just cannot in good conscience give this a higher rating.

To educate yourself or children about the Holocaust and other WWII subjects, there are many other better books to pick up.

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