Confessions of a Blogaholic

One of my teacher friends is very much into Young Adult Lit. I have a difficult time finding the gems of YA lit amidst the rows of crap. This teacher friend was recently talking about the novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and when she said, "I couldn't believe what happened in the end," it piqued my interest.

Nathan bought the book for my on Saturday, and I finished it today. As far as readability, it goes quite quickly and it is only 215 pages long.

What a fantastic new perspective on Germany during WWII. The story is from the eyes of a 9-year-old boy on "one side of the fence" during Nazi-occupied Germany. He meets a boy on "the other side of the fence" at a place he calls "Out-With." What transpires is a truly heartbreaking tale of innocence, childhood naivete, guilt, and "exploration." This is by no means a rite-of-passage novel, but is instead a shockingly sad story, and although you can sense the ending before it comes, you are still just as sad when you read the final outcome.

The final lines are haunting...."And that's the end of the story about Bruno and his family. Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age."

This book is not your typical Diary of Anne Frank. In fact, I would venture to say it is different than any other war novel I have ever read. I highly recommend it for a quick, but extremely gut-wrenching, read.