Page 22                                                                                                                                                                                               Labhairt Amach

Text Box: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Bruno is a nine year old boy growing up in Berlin during World War Two. He lives in a five story house with servants, his mother, father and twelve year old sister, Gretel.
When Bruno’s father is visited by the Fuhrer, Bruno’s life changes dramatically. His father gets a new uniform and his title changes to ‘Commandant’. To Bruno’s great surprise, they find themselves moving to a new home at a place called Auschwitz which he mistakenly calls ‘Out-with’.
Text Box: Once in Auschwitz, Bruno is homesick as his new life is smaller, full of soldiers and with no one to play with.
From his bedroom, he notices a ‘town’ of inhabitants, dressed in striped pyjamas, separated from him by a wire fence. He is told by his father that these people are not really human.
Despite being strongly forbidden to explore this ‘town’, sheer curiosity and boredom drive Bruno to follow the wire cordoning until he meets a young Jewish boy of exactly the same birth date as him.  Eventually Bruno decides to climb under the fence and go to explore his  new friend Shmuel’s Text Box: world………
The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne is a truly wonderful book and definitely one which you could pick up, read and get lost in. I would give this book a mark of 8 out of 10 and would recommend it to anyone. It might particularly interest people who enjoy History or who have studied the Second World War. A thoroughly enjoyable read!
John Grogan
Editorial team


Text Box: murder mystery novel about it. He ends up, however, discovering other mysteries about his own past.
One critic said that the book ‘Gave…that rare, greedy feeling of: this is so good I want to read it all at once but I mustn’t or it will be over too soon.’
The book is aimed at more advanced readers and can be quite challenging to follow as, due to his autism, Christopher switches back and forth between topics in his narrative. 
Text Box: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was written By Mark Haddon who won the Whitbread book of the year award. The novel is about a fifteen year old named Christopher Boone who has a photographic memory.
Christopher has autism and shows an unusual aptitude for Science and Maths however he says he finds ‘people confusing’.
When Christopher finds his neighbour’s dog lying dead on the lawn he decides to track down the killer and to write a Text Box: This is an engaging and highly recommendable read as it keeps you on edge with all the tension in the story. I would give the book a mark of 8 out of 10. For any pupil interested in reading this novel, it is available in the school library.

By Connor Wilson
Editorial team


Text Box: Pick up a book today