The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne, Random House Children's Books, 2006

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas follows nine-year-old Bruno as he moves with his family from Berlin to Auschwitz.  Bruno's father is a commandant in the German army who has been assigned to be in charge of the Auschwitz concentration camp.  Bruno can see the camp from his bedroom window, but since he is so young he doesn't understand what is going on on the other side of the fence.  Bruno wants a friend to play with, so he goes exploring along the fence and finds a little boy his own age, Shmuel.  They meet on their respective sides of the fence almost every day for a year, talking and becoming close friends.  Through it all, the two never occupy the same side of the fence and Bruno never fully understands what is going on the other side.  Shmuel loses his father in the camp and Bruno offers to crawl under a small gap in the fence to help Shmuel find him.  The two wander around the camp until they are corralled into a building by some soldiers.  In the end, it's clear that Bruno and Shmuel have been taken into a gas chamber and killed.

I would definitely use this book in my classroom.  Although the main character is only nine years old, he speaks and thinks very maturely.  The content of the book is mature enough for middle-schoolers but not so mature as to be above their level of understanding.  It deals with WWII and concentration camps, but also with unlikely friendships and equality of all people.  I would use this book with eighth-graders for literature circles and to read as a class since it deals with pretty heavy issues and also has some challenging vocabulary.  I would also have the book in the classroom for individual reading for younger students.