Historical Fiction

The Boy in Striped Pajamas

By John Boyne

Published by Random House Children's Books

Copyright 2007

Reading Level: Lexile Framework 1080L , reading level 8.3

Suggested Delivery: Independent read, Read aloud 

Vocabulary: dismissively (8), laquer (42), oblige (61), incredulous (64), coincide (87), anti-semitism 

Awards: Irish Book Award Children’s Book of the Year, Irish Book Award People’s Choice Book of the Year, Bisto Book of the Year, Que Leer Award Best International Novel of the Year (Spain), Orange Prize Readers Group Book of the Year

 "Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences."- Amazon 

This book is a heart warming, insprirational, powerful, memorable, and realistic portrayal of the Holocaust. This book does a great job with helping students understand and that being different should have no influence on friendship. 

Pre-Reading: Students can participate in a writing activity that will activate their thinking about the theme of friendship. Questions for the activity can include, "Describe the traits of a good friend", "Have you ever been betrayed by a friend?", Do you have an enemy? What makes somone an enemy?", "Have you ever been friends with someone you were not supposed to be friends with? Why were you not allowed to be friends with that person?" This activity will provide students a hook for the story. After responding to the pre-reading questions, students will share with their partners.

During Reading: As students read the story, they come across many barriers and issues that Bruno must deal with that affect his life. Students can keep a mental list of these barriers, or write them out. Students can ask themselves the questions, "What are these problems? How do these barriers affect Bruno's decisions? How does Bruno overcome these problems?" "How do Bruno and Shmuel avoid the soldiers and parents in order to keep their friendship?"

Post-Reading: Students can watch the movie "The Boy in Striped Pajamas" that released on November 2008. After watching the movie students can create a Venn diagram, comparing and contrasting events in the story and events in the movie. After creating their Venn diagrams, students can pair up and compare and contrast their Venn diagrams with their partners.

Writing Activity: In a couple paragraphs students can write about how the book affected them, in postive ways and/or in negative ways. They can also write about whether or not they would recommend the book to others and why or why not. This can be a good acitivty to use as an assemement for the lesson. 

Electronic Resouces: 

Boy in Striped Pajamas Vocabulary List

This vocabulary list includes more vocabulary

words for students to understand while 

reading the novel. The list includes the word, 

the definition of the word, other forms of the word,

and even easy ways to remember the vocabulary word.

"The Boy in Striped Pajamas" Trailer

This Youtube video of "The Boy in Striped Pajamas"

trailer can give students an extra look at the movie

and what it entails. If students would like to watch

the movie at home with their families, it is available online

and on Netflix.