Sad and Profound

Yesterday afternoon I went canoeing with my cousins. Afterwards we went to get ice cream and on the way home, I rode in my cousins' car. Guess what I found there.

A book I had never read before! So of course, I spent the next two hours reading it.

This book is excellent. It is the story of a little boy, Bruno, whose father is the commandant at Auschwitz. After Bruno moves there with his family, he befriends a Jewish boy named Shmuel who is a prisoner in the camp. The image of the two boys talking, sitting on opposite sides of that infamous barbed wire fence, is what this story is best known for.

It is a simple book, told from a child's perspective and in a child's language. That seems to work well for books about injustice - think To Kill A Mockingbird. This book is a very quick read and offers a wise, fresh take on the tragedy of the Holocaust.

You will become very attached to the characters and will have a hard time forgetting this story.

Strongly recommended.