(Crossover) The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

I had read the boy in the striped pyjamas already. This was because I had to read this book in secondary school for my English class. This was a long time ago so I did not remember every detail of the book. What I did remember was really liking it. I did remember some minor details which helped me read the book more easily. The book was easy to read the language used was not difficult at all. The events in the book are for readers who are nearing the end of Erikson’s stage four of psychosocial development, industry vs inferiority.

The boy in the striped pyjamas is about childhood innocence and friendship. The novel is told from Bruno’s perspective. Bruno is a nine year old and is the son of a Nazi commandant. When moved into their new home, Bruno starts to explore the place. He comes upon a fence. He follows the fence until he sees a young boy sitting on the other side without shoes. The boy is named Shmuel, he is a Jewish boy. Bruno starts to become friends with Shmuel and they discuss all sort of things together. Shmuel confides in Bruno that he is unable to find his father. Bruno wants to help. Shmuel gets Bruno a set pf pyjamas that way he can help him find his father, on the other side of the fence. The day Bruno sneaks to the other side, he gets herd by the prisoners into the gas chambers. Adults do not have a significant role in the boy in the striped pyjamas, they are mentioned but are not important. The most important part of the book is the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel.

We had a discussion about the friendship of the two boys in the book in our book club. We all agreed that it was a beautiful friendship. And found it unfair how the ending of the book was displayed. We thought it was a realistic ending. It was a shame that it had to end as it did.

“What exactly was the difference and who decided which people wore the striped pyjamas and which people wore the uniforms?”  ( Boyne, 2006, p85). This quote made me emotional a bit. Who are we to decide who gets to live and who not. The men in uniforms had the upper hand.. They were the ones who decided who got to live an who not. You eventually find out that even Bruno is one of the people who wears a striped pyjama. The striped pyjama signifies the difference between Bruno and Shmuel’s lives as well. The striped pyjamas in this book signal more than just the death of self-expression and individual identity—they represent death itself.

I find it very sad how the story has ended. If you know the backstory, you know that the book is based at the end of World War two. This means that a lot of Jewish people were send to the gas chambers. It was heart breaking that Shmuel did not find his father at the end and meat his death. Bruno was also together with Shmuel, the only conciliation is that they died together and not alone.

All in all the boy in the striped pyjamas is a book you must read. It gives you an insight into an amazing friendship without prejudice. A friendship where they want to help each other.

                Word count without quotes: 551 words

“Wisdom comes by disillusionment” -George Santayana

(Disillusion and disappointment) Lord of the Flies by William Golding

I had heard a lot of good things about Lord of the Flies. Many people were very positive about it. So when I started to read the book I could not quite fathom what was happening. I had to reread paragraphs because of parts I did not understand. When I reread those paragraphs I would read things I did not saw first. It is a book where you have to take the time to read it. You can not read the whole book in one sitting. We discussed in the book club that it was quite hard to go through the book. I was not the only with that problem. We eventually did read the whole book. It only took us a bit longer than normal. We also discussed that the language use in the book was a bit difficult for the age group of the book.

The novel starts with a group of schoolboys who are on an airplane during the war. Somehow the plane crashes and the boys eventually end up on a deserted island. The pilot is killed during the crash. The boys are left alone to fend for themselves, and have to survive without the help of adults. Adults are also not mentioned in the book at all. You do have the occasional story that is told by the boys about some adults. All of the boys take up a different role. Ralph is in charge of the group. He tries to take up the responsibility and makes the boys build huts and do different tasks to increase their rate of survival. One of the boys Jack becomes obsessed with hunting and soon the others become obsessed with it as well. They are offering animal heads on sticks for the “beast”. Simon, another boy, finds out that the beast is not real. While returning to the group the boys mistake him for the beast and he is beaten to death.

Disillusionment is a theme you come across in the storyline. The boys’ age range from six years old to twelve years old. This means they are in stage four of Erikson’s stage of psychosocial development. “He’s like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn’t a proper chief.”(Golding. 1954. P. 138). In this part of the story jack thinks that Ralph is not the chief the perfect chief for them. Jack thought at the beginning of the story that Ralph was a good chief and elected him. Ralph uses logic and reasoning just like Piggy does. Jack thinks  strength is a better characteristic for a leader. This fits perfectly into the theme of disillusion. Lord of the flies enhances also the importance of rules and regulations in society. Which the boys were happy they did not have at the beginning. As the story goes on they find out that it is important to have rules in their group. When the boys were rescued, the adults are very disappointed int hem. This is not fair to them because the boys only mirrored the way the adults fought the war with violence. They copied their way of being.

Lord of the Flies is an outstanding book to read, even though you have to read some part twice. It has a good message behind it. Which is to always use logic instead of violence.

Word count without quotes: 542 words

“I’m interested in how innocence fares when it collides with hard reality.” – Geoffrey S. Fletcher

(The Age of Innocence) Charlotte’s web by Elwyn Brooks White

I have heard of Charlotte’s web when I was younger. I never read it but did see the film when I was younger. I loved the film so much back then. It was a completely different experience reading the book. In a lifetime, there are not a lot of stories that ignite your imagination so they change how we see the world. Charlotte’s web is one of those stories. I was completely engulfed in the book and read it in one go. It was easy to read with simple language use. The theme is universal and timeless, you can really read the love and friendship between Fern, Wilbur and also Charlotte. You also see a way of how we should treat each other with kindness. I can identify myself with Wilbur back when I was younger I was a dedicated, still am, friend. Who would do anything for her friends.

Fern, a warm-hearted girl, saves a little pig, Wilbur, from her father’s axe. If Fern had not done this Wilbur would have died. Wilbur was a runt this was the reason why it had to die. We all have felt like a runt some time in our lives. We are discovering life with all its ups, downs and risks.  According Appleyard :”It appears that both younger and older children remember the parts of the plot structure that relate directly to the action.” (n.d. p. 10).  Wilbur is loving and shows ignorance throughout the story. At the end of the book his innocence collides with the hard reality when his friend, Charlotte, dies. He knows how to bribe the rat to help safe Charlotte’s daughters. This is the main thing you remember from the story Wilbur had to forcefully grow up. The novel is suitable for younger children from the age of ten to thirteen. The events in the book are for readers who are nearing the end of Erikson’s stage four of psychosocial development, industry vs inferiority.

We discussed in the book club that there were no obvious parent roles in the story. At the beginning Fern’s parents are mentioned briefly other then that they are not mentioned. The parents of Wilbur are also not mentioned during the whole storyline. We also discussed that Charlotte loved Wilbur dearly as Fern did too. As mentioned in the book “Fern loved Wilbur more than anything.” ( White, 1952, p. 8).  You could feel the love for Wilbur from the both of them throughout the book. Wilbur also loved Fern and Charlotte dearly. At the end of the book Wilbur even mentioned that he loved Charlotte’s children dearly. It was just not the same as with Charlotte. It is a Shame that Charlotte had to die at the end. It is very sad and many people will cry when reading it. It is hart breaking that the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte is ended abruptly like this.

The story shows us that we all can be amazing in our own ways. It also reminds us of our innocent childhood and that we always have to remain humble. It was nice talk I could take a moment out of my life to dream back to the innocent old days. Charlotte’s web made this possible for me.

Word count without quotes: 514 words

“To love someone is nothing, to be loved by someone is something, but to be loved by the one you love is everything” – Bill Russell

(First Love) Forever by Judy Blume

When I read the cover of Judy Blume’s “Forever” it peaked my interest. I wanted to know a bit more about the book first before I started to read. I eventually did a bit of research beforehand. I found out that Forever was written in the 70’s. This alone made me read the novel with another view then I would have before. First love is introduced in Forever as well as first sexual encounters. The book is written in a fairly easy way and I read it in a couple of hours.

In the book we follow Katherine’s and Michael’s relationship. It is an intense first-love full of intimacy and heartache. The two are falling head-over-heels for each other in a short amount of time. They cannot see their lives without each other anymore. The couple faces reality after a while and go through some difficulties. This gives the reader an insight on how young adolescents cope with the challenges they face in relationships.

““Forever?” he asked.

“Forever,” I said.” (Blume,1975, p. 93)

Katherine and Michael are very involved in the relationship. They even get to know the families of their partner. We see how they grow towards each other in a more intimate way. We can read in the process when they come close together that Katherine gets educated by her mother and grandmother about certain topics. The topics that are covered by Blume in the novel are menstruation, sexual intercourse for the first time, pregnancy, contraception and abortion. The readers are introduced to elements they would otherwise not read in a novel from the 70’s. This made Forever such a controversial book back in the day in the United States. Blume’s way of educating young adolescents made them take the necessary precautions before having sex, which is so important. Blume did an excellent job covering the subjects mentioned above in the book.

We discussed in our group the relationship between Katherine and her parents. We found it very interesting that she could openly talk about her relationships with her parents. We could also identify with Katherine when she did not see eye to eye with her parents and wanted to be a good daughter. According to Appleyard: “There is also a cognitive explanation in the fact that children’s idealised views of their parents’ authority and omniscience are often discovered to be wanting just in these years when they go to school and begin to acquire skills and learn information on their own.”(n.d. p. 20). We can see in the book that Katherine’s parents opinion is very important to her. In the beginning of the book she wants them to like Michael after a while she starts to rebel. This is because she starts to fall in love with Michael and her parents are against their relationship, according to Katherine. She starts to explore the world around her and this makes it sometimes that she does not want to listen to her parents. Katherine and Michael eventually break up.

The book is suitable for readers from the ages of twelve years and older. Readers from that age group will be in stage five of Erikson’s’ theory of psychosocial development. This is the identity versus confusion stage, a time for young adolescents to learn about different types of relationships.

Overall, I found the book to be a very accurate representation of first love. It is also a good book for young adolescents to learn about relationships and the aspects that come with it. Word count without quotes: 529 words

“The more that you read, the more things you’ll know. The more that you’ll learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

My love for reading started at a very young age and spending most of my time at the library helped grow my love for books even more. My parents always encouraged me to read since I was a little girl, thus them registering me for the library so I would read more voluntarily. Wednesdays were the day I would come home early from school, so I had the time to go to the library. Spending hours in the library searching  for the next novel I wanted to read is something that I loved to do. Fun fact after a while I read all of the books in my age category. I started then to read adult novels from the age of twelve. I never wanted to go home because this would give me less time to read. I always started reading in the library right away. Every week I would go to the library and lend ten books. This was the maximum of books I could borrow, if I could borrow more I would have done that. Unfortunately this was not possible. Sometimes I even would lend books on the library card of my brother. This was so I could take more material to read home. The ten books that I borrowed were never enough to satisfy my lust for reading.

Reading was an outlet for me. I could be so engrossed in a novel that I would not notice the time flying by and it was bedtime already. My parents had to always force me to go to bed. Reading helped me escape from the world where it was not always so great. Being bullied in primary school made me also love reading. Books would never hurt me like people would. They were not as cruel as people. I fantasized that I would be the heroine. I would have many friends which I did not have while being in primary school. Everyone loved being around me and wanted to be always in my presence. Novels were also a way for me to learn about the world around me. I wanted to know everything there was to know. I read not only fiction but also non-fiction this helped me to grow my knowledge of the world around me.

When going to secondary school my love for reading started to fade away a bit. This was due to my very busy schedule. The love for reading was also replaced by my second love, watching films and series, which seemed to work perfectly with my everlasting lack of time. I never lost the love for reading. Reading was always at the back of my head even though I was not reading actively. Even though I loved watching films this never replaced my very first love. Now and then I would still try to pick up a good book and it was like I turned back time. I was that small little girl again who was reading a book in her bedroom all by herself, without a care in the world.

Word count without quotes: 508 words