The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

                 My current independent reading choice is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. The story takes place during World War Two while Adolf Hitler is in power and the holocaust is taking place. The protagonist is a eight-year-old German boy who's father is in an important position as a soldier. One day, after coming home from school, Bruno finds his possessions packed and is informed that his family will being moving to a new home in a place called "Out-With".




                  Bruno believes that he will never create any friends at his new home, seeing no other houses around and no other children until he sees people in the distance. These people are always wearing striped pajamas and wander around in an enclosed area. After speaking with his father, Bruno was told not to worry about the people in the fenced in area and that they weren't considered people at all. Against his father's wishes, Bruno decides to visit the fenced area and meets a boy his age from Poland. Why does this boy always wear his pajamas? Why can't he come to the other side of the fence? What exactly does his father do for work? These are all questions that Bruno have throughout the story up until this point.

If There Be Thorns - Review

                                                       If There Be Thorns
                                                           V.C. Andrews




     In the 3rd installment of V.C. Andrews' Dollanganger Series, the central plot focuses around Cathy's life now that she is an adult with children. Although Cathy is still a main character, Andrews never tell the story from her point of view. Andrews writes from the perspective of J

Jory, a fourteen-year-old boy who whishes to follow in his mother's and late father's footsteps and become a well known dancer, and Bart, a ten-year-old boy with an active imagination who seems to be blamed for everything.

      Although telling the story from the children's point of view is an unique way of seeing how certain events affect someone other than Cathy, it caused some areas of the book to seem slow. Some parts of the book focused on Bart imagining that he was hunting in his backyard or pretending to be a dog. These events seem strange at first, but after a while, seem repetitive and quickly lose your interest. Other areas include Jory and Cathy dancing or practicing in there home.

If There Be Thorns book cover
Amazon Summary

     Another area in which the book could have been improved was how little recap they gave you from the last novel. In some stories, no recap is necessary. But in If There Be Thorns, you must remember a large amount of events from Petals on the Wind. For example you must remember that Cathy has been married four times; to Julian Marquet, Bartholomew Winslow, and Dr. Paul Sheffield, and Chris Dollanganger. Something else to keep in mind is that Julian, Bartholomew, and Paul have all died in various ways, Julian by car accident, Bartholomew by a house fire, and Paul by a heart attack. But what makes it more confusing is the situation with the children. Jory was the son of Julian and Bart was the son of Bartholomew but believed he was the son of Paul. Overall, I would not suggest reading this book before reading the first two due to the lack of information given of the other two.

      Other than some confusing areas and some slow areas, I would highly suggest this series and this book. Although some areas in the plot did not have a lot of action, I felt they were important to the reader's comprehension and to the plot nonetheless. If you enjoy horror and suspense, you may enjoy the Dollanganger Series.

      The channel Lifetime will also be creating a television show based off of this book later this year.

                                                Lifetime Cast List