The boy in the striped pajamas!!

[mummyloveslucy]

Oh my God, what a fantastic film! If you haven't seen it yet, you must.

and it isn't even well written

Haven't seen it yet, but I know the boy who plays the part of the Jewish boy in the film - he is my friend's friend's son. I really want to see it.

ds1 (10yrs) has the audiobook and has listened to it 3 times (so he tells me)he likes it, i got it around the time they were doing ww2 at school. although it maynot be accurate i felt it introduced the subject of camps to him well and gave him a bit of an idea of what happened. it does make him cry though. i have ot on dvd to watch but havnt got round to it yet,

i accept fully that it is a fable and not meant to be a work of fact, and agree completely that the world would be very very mundane if art was disregarded for not being completely accurate.
but i think the reason people get pissed off isn't because it's not accurate or implausable. what irks people like me is when art is illogical. because even with the examples you give, the implausable thing is the premise i.e. an angel coming back, or lets say space travel in star trek. so as viewers we accept this premise as a jumping off point and then expect the subjects within this construct to act and respond with logical actions.

sorry should have said "is when stories are illogical" because obviously some art by it's very nature is illogical

....I accept that stories should maintain an internal logic.

I don't think that this film crosses that boundary. Even given language issues. It's target audience are unlikely to watch 'Downfall' or 'Das Boot' and read the subtitles eagerly...

....the revelation for early teens is not the peripheral historical inconsistencies, it is the big bald fact at the centre of the film. The fact that ordinary seeming people, people who could be your parents, connived in such a huge crime. Not so long ago, and in a place not so different to where we live.

The film works in this regard. There are other resources for those that then wish to seek them, but not so universally accessible, and conveying (by use of a few conceits) a big truth...

My daughter has been studying this book for her gcse's......so begged us all to watch the film. My ds 10 was questions,questions all through, and a little upset, so maybe he was a little young.

Daughter is off to Aushwitz with the school in oct as part of their studies. Not fair! I want to go! Such an opportunity though, will find the money somehow!

well my issue with the language was more of a pedantic niggle than a real problem, it certainly didn't take away from the novel.
my issue with the internal logic is that the writer has set up the story to revolve around the holocaust and a concentration camp. but the concentration camp is a place that is very poorly guarded, where a child had the freedom to wander off for hours at a time to a secluded spot that if found by anyone else would have made for a very easy escape route.
i did still enjoy the story.

I have just finished 'The Girl in the Red Coat' the biography of Roma Ligocka (Roman Polanski's cousin) and I have never read anything anything about the holocaust which gets across the constant fear as well as this. I picked it up in the secondary school library where I work and would recommend it to anyone trying to get teenagers to understand what it would have been like. I would actually say it is more harrowing than either Anne Frank or The Boy....

Thanks, I'll look out for The girl in the red coat too.
My daughter is only 4, but I'll keep it for when she's old enough.
It's so importent for young people to learn about these things.

"The fact that ordinary seeming people, people who could be your parents, connived in such a huge crime. Not so long ago, and in a place not so different to where we live"

But, if you didn't have any prior knowledge of the holocaust would you get any of that???

I don't think you would.

nothing is explained in the book. it's all implied. if you know what went on you can understand it, if not then it is utterly meaningless.

which means that as a teaching aid I am sure it can be used fairly successfully (albeit with explanations of the implausability of the actual situation), but as a book or a film by themselves it's very poor.