The Boy in the striped pyjamas

My first opinion:

I hadn’t read the book and hadn’t seen the film yet so I didn’t really know what to expect. Well I knew it was a World War 2 story, but there are may World War 2 stories so I didn’t know what this would be about. You can tell a lot by looking at the book cover, but still that’s just guessing what it could be about. When I started reading I knew I was dealing with a naïve narrator (Bruno). This made it confusing sometimes, because he has no clue what really is going on. He really speaks from his point of view, a kid’s point of view, who doesn’t understand everything that happens. But I could figure it out quite quickly. I thought it was fun figuring out what the deeper meaning was which was frustrating at sometimes because you know it would go wrong eventually. I heard some people say that they cried reading the book so I thought I would, but I didn’t. I wasn’t sad at the end I was just really frustrated. I can’t stand reading books about people who are treated badly as in the Second World War. The worse thing was that Bruno didn’t see this, which frustrated me the most.

In Class discussion:

I have to admit that I was there physically but I was very tired so I hope I heard all the important stuff that has been told in class. We first started looking back at the things we talked about last time. We talked about how we could choose the right books for our pupils. The answer to this is, by asking the pupils and by using theory. Or you could go to a big bookstore and ask them which books are popular at the moment. We also talked about how you can encourage the pupils to read. If you use any form of literature, for example cartoon books or what so ever, pupils could get more interested in reading. We also talked about graded readers and at first I didn’t quite understand what it meant, but I think it is a great invention! Children can read great English books and easily understand them because they simplified the vocab and grammar. I work at two schools and one of them is the Praktijkonderwijs and it often occurs that I have to use primary school worksheets, which are very childish for the age of these pupils. The graded readers give them the opportunity to read a book meant for their age but than written in an easier way. I think that is great! After that we talked about the term Crossover literature.  Crossover literature is been there for a while but it was never called crossover literature until Harry Potter was released in an adult and child version.  Crossover literature appeals to both adults and children. This was also a bridge to the next topic where we had to fill in a form and had to decide which element in the book would appeal to adult and adolescent readers. If I look at “the Boy in the striped pyjamas” an adult will like the innocence of the boy (Bruno) and will like the underlying story that is actually really happening. An adolescent reader will like the adventure the boy is looking for. We had to talk about this in groups and we had to think about an elevator pitch for the book we read. I thought it was a pity that nobody did an elevator pitch on “the Curious incident..” .

Age suitability:

In class we talked about the age suitability and the age suitability for “His dark materials” was estimated to be for 10-16 years old. At this age children are in their puberties and if we look at the stages of Erikson they are rebelling against parents.

With “Good Omens” the age suitability was estimated to be 12+ because the humour would be a bit difficult and there are deep layers in the story. We also came to the conclusion that the in between phase (15-18 years old) is a bit difficult for this book.  “The curious incident” is about someone who has autism. This will be clear for adults but not for children. Children of 10 years old and up could read it, but for empathy they have to be older.  Then we talked about “the Boy in the striped pyjamas” and this gave a bit of a discussion. Some say that it is not suitable for young children because it is too horrible to read, because they will understand what this is all about. In primary school they learn things about the Second World War, so they will understand. Others said that children wouldn’t know what this is exactly all about.

But I think children will understand what this is about and I think, because it is written in a naïve narrator point of view without violence or cursing in it, this book is suitable for 10 years and up.  And maybe even younger, but when they wouldn’t understand exactly what it is about, than it’s a book where a boy explores a lot with an open ending. I think 10 years is a suitable age because the main character is 9 years old so they could relate to this character. If I look at commonsensemedia.org parents think 12 is a suitable age and children think 11 is a suitable age. Parents think that children wouldn’t fully understand the ending of the story. Some kids say that this is a good book to read when you’re learning about the holocaust in primary school, because it will help you understand what happened back then (Commonsensemedia.org, 2013).  

If I look at the stages of Erikson, the 10-year-old kids will be in the industry versus inferiority stage, which means that they learn to cope with new social and academic demands. And after that they will be in the identity versus role confusion stage. The main character in the book is in the industry versus inferiority stage so kids could relate to him. And if someone would be in the next stage he or she will be searching for his or her own identity and exploring things on their own. This is also what happens in the book. (Cherry, 2013) That’s why I think the book is suitable for the age of 10.

Bibliografie

Cherry, K. (2013, November 3). About.com Psychology. Opgeroepen op November 3, 2013, van About.com Psychology: http://psychology.about.com/library/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm

 

Commonsensemedia.org. (2013, November 3). Common sense media. Opgeroepen op November 3, 2013, van Common sense media: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-boy-in-the-striped-pajamas