First Lines Friday – 03/07/2020

In my recent Sunday Summary post, I set myself a theme for today’s First Lines Friday post. I didn’t really know what book or genre I wanted to share, but I wanted to set some criteria so my selection of book was less random than usual. In the end, I settled on choosing a book that I have read and rated five stars.

I spent a long time last night flicking through a number of highly-rated reads and finally settled on today’s selection. It’s a historical fiction novel I read in 2018 and if I remember correctly, I read this in two sittings over two days. It is really easy to read and I was surprised to learn it was written for a younger audience than I expected considering the subject matter. Have you any idea what it might be from the hints? If not, perhaps the opening lines might give it away…

 

One afternoon, when Bruno came home from school, he was surprised to find Maria, the family’s maid – who always kept her head bowed and never looked up from the carpet – standing in his bedroom, pulling all his belongings out of the wardrobe and packing them in four large wooden crates, even the things he’d hidden at the back that belonged to him and were nobody else’s business.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked in as polite a tone as he could muster, for although he wasn’t happy to come home to find someone going through his possessions, his mother had always told him that he was to treat Maria respectfully and not just imitate the way Father spoke to her. ‘You take your hands off my things.’

Maria shook her head and pointed towards the staircase behind him, where Bruno’s mother had just appeared.

 

Intrigued to find out what the book I am featuring this week is?

 

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne

Goodreads – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the back cover, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about.

If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn’t a book for nine-year-olds.)  And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.

Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter such a fence.

 

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is such an iconic story that I think everyone has an idea of what it’s about, even if you haven’t read the book or watched a film based on it. I went into this book with a vague idea of the story, but reading it for myself was a completely different experience. It’s one of the few books that have made me really cry at the end. Despite the emotional aspect of the story, I absolutely recommend it to anyone and everyone. It offers a child’s innocent and completely different perspective to an awful event.

Have you read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas? Let me know what you think of the story in the comments!

 

 

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