“Childhood is measured out by the sound and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows” - John Betjeman.  Young Bruno and his family move out of the bustling streets of Berlin to a “special”  place for his father’s “new, special” job promotion as a soldier. As Bruno wanders around the premises of his new house he finds a fence which outlines the borders of a concentration camp for people of Jewish religion. He meets a somber young boy of the same age. As Bruno befriends Shmul, he realizes that they are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. Shmul comes into their residence to clean and is offered food by Bruno. One of the soldiers sees and asks Bruno if he knows who that is. Out of fear, he does something unbelievable and declines. Shmul is punished, Bruno goes to see Shmul at the fence and sees that he has taken a pretty good beating. To make up for this pain, he decides to go on the other side of the fence to help Shmul find his father. Lying to his parents, Bruno sneaks out the back to meet Shmul at the fence. He digs a hole and puts on the blue, striped pajamas that all the prisoners wear. The two boys scurry to find Shmul’s father. With a bang, the Nazis break in and coral the Jews like sheep to a small building where they are all crammed into an even smaller room secured and sealed by a heavy, metal door. Both parents and Bruno panicked, this tragic tale of the holocaust time will leave you with emotions and tears almost impossible to deal with.

Both book and movie have great details and similarities but there are some pretty big chunks of the story that were taken out completely or changed. The first I noticed that Bruno’s age was changed. He is eight-years-old in the book and nine in the movie. Another thing that was missing was Maria in the beginning. In the book, Maria is found cleaning up everything in Bruno’s room, even all of his hidden belongings he didn’t anyone to see. This scene was not in the movie. I also imagined Maria as an older lady in a black dress with a frilly white apron. Maria appeared in the movie as a young, well dressed (for a maid) women. There was also no stern butler mentioned in the movie. Bruno talked about an office in the Berlin house that no one else but father was allowed in. This was neither seen nor mentioned in the movie. Also, there was a scene in the book where Hitler came to the house, but this scene must have been removed from the movie due to the sensitivity of the subject. I imagined some of the characters differently. For example, Bruno made his sister come off as a total brat. In the movie, she seems pretty normal and not how Bruno mentioned. I imagined his mom a lot differently than she appeared in the movie. I imagined her with blonde hair in a pin-curl and wearing a lot of jewelery. Basically, I imagined her as a ritzy, glamorous gal. She seemed really closely connected to Bruno in the movie. She had brown hair and didn’t appear to wear a lot of accessories. She got really emotional and upset with the mistreatment of the Jews in the movie which made her a much more likable person and someone you could relate with. The house in the movie was too well made and fancy for what I had imagined they lived in. I thought that they would live in a rickety, old, wooden house that looked like it belonged on a farm. I thought that the fence would be right there by the house and that the tire swing that Bruno played on would be next to the fence. In the movie, Bruno has to travel a ways before he could reach the fence and the tire swing is in the front. The house in the movie is two-stories and looks really well made and modern.

I am a sucker for a good story and usually tend to go towards the “book is always better” side. But in this case, I'm going to have to go for the movie. It really made me feel the feels. It really just brought the book to life. Although not all parts were how I imagined, it was an overall great movie. I would really recommend reading the book first so that you don’t get that depressed when the movie is over. It’s a book about eight-year-olds, but not for eight-year-olds. I say go ahead and read this book, everyone should read it before their time is up. A great book, a great movie.