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Original poster

Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - age 9?

55 replies

ElizabethWakefield · 08/11/2010 20:44

Just after some opinions please.

DD's class (P6) 9 and 10 yr olds, started reading the Boy in the striped pyjamas today in school. They seem to have been given no background etc and I was just a but surprised as I thought it was aimed at older children.

I have read it, and while I didn't think it was particularly well done, I feel that it will just go over the children's heads just now and they wont really understand it.

DD has a basic understanding of the war and what happened in concentration camps (I was recently at auschwitz) and it's not that i am against her learning about it, i just feel with no background, it is a bit pointless.

They are also going to be shown the film (which is a 12 as a matter of interest).

Just really wondering what others thought.

OP posts:
splashy · 08/11/2010 23:31

I think the film is unsuitable for a 9 year old, really is rather disturbing.

Can't comment about the book as haven't read it but agree that reading it is pointless unless it is part of an education about the holocaust.

mummytime · 09/11/2010 00:03

My DD's teacher started reading this to her class in year 5. She hadn't got to the end herself, when I went in and expressed my concern. My DD would be far too sensitive to cope with the end of the book.

I would also have objected strongly to children this age being shown a 12 film.

In my DDs case I was not the only one to express concern, and when the teacher had finished the book she decided not to finish reading it to the class. (Some had read it themselves before, but precocious readers are not necessarily the most sensitive.)

My DS read it in school and watched the film in year 9 and I had no problems with that. I think the book is great btw.

Feenie · 09/11/2010 06:50

Shock that she hadn't read the end before reading it to the children!

SofiaAmes · 09/11/2010 07:25

I was traumatized for years after being assigned Lord of the Flies in school around age 11. I never did finish the book. And in fact when it was assigned again much later (high school or even university), I made special arrangements to study another text as I couldn't bring myself to read it. I think you know your own child and if you think the material is unsuitable for him/her, then you should discuss that with the teacher. I have been amazed at how many parents let/encourage their young children to read the whole Harry Potter series without any idea of how disturbing the last few books are. I did not allow my ds at 9 to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but did allow him to read the books.

thisisyesterday · 09/11/2010 09:03

agree totally with cory

i have no idea why the book is so acclaimed and how it managed to get made into a film

GrimmaTheNome · 09/11/2010 10:58

I just remembered - doesn't the blurb on the book explicitly say something like, 'this book is about a 9 year old but it is not meant for 9 year old readers' ? Hmm

janeyjampot · 09/11/2010 11:40

My DD studied this book in Year 6. She bought the film with her Christmas money because she was enjoying the WW2 topic, and was really quite into it. I had some reservations about watching a 12 (she was 10, nearly 11, at the time), but decided to watch it with her in case she needed me to explain it to her. I knew nothing about it and kept hoping for a glimpse of sunshine but there was none. The film is relentlessly miserable - and probably rightly so - but I wouldn't watch it with a primary school child. We were both really upset at the end and DD had difficulty in going to sleep for at least a month afterwards. Even now - a year on - she still mentions it and how upset we were.

cansu · 09/11/2010 17:13

It is a book read with KS3 in the school where I work and I would agree that it is unsuitable for children in years 5 or 6. I spent quite a lot of time working on the background and context of the novel and I wouldn't have felt comfortable doing this with younger students. Even with Year 7, I obviously had to be careful with the material I chose to look at with them. I am however, amazed when adults complain that children's fiction is rubbish; they seem to be missing the key point that it is aimed at children and not adults. Therefore it's hardly surprising that it does not measure up to adult standards. FWIW I think the book in question is a very good introduction for young adults.

Original poster
ElizabethWakefield · 09/11/2010 21:44

Thanks all for the input.

DD had the book home tonight to read a chapter at home and the blurb does indeed say that Grimma.

Had parents night tonight and the teacher actually brought it up and asked if I had read it. I said I had and I was quite surprised that they were reading it as a class. She said she was doing it as she wanted to push the class on a bit, and although it is more an S1 level she thought they would cope ok.

She also said she is going to dumb down the worksheets etc a bit. Dumbing down the holocaust!!

It's not part of any topic or anything. Still not sure about it, but will see how it goes.

OP posts:
thisisyesterday · 09/11/2010 21:57

cansu... so did you mention to your students taht actually it was totally unrealistic and that no-one would have been able to just get into Auschwitz unnoticed?

that is my main problem with the book. it just would never have happened and it kind of belittles what people in the camps went through IMO.

thisisyesterday · 09/11/2010 21:58

omg at dumbing it down :(

i would be really quite unhappy about that.

this is an incredibly serious subject

Original poster
ElizabethWakefield · 09/11/2010 22:03

Thisisyesterday, I really disliked the book for that reason, I mean, really as if people could sneak in! If that was the case so many people would have escaped and survived.

I did the full guided tour at Auschwitz last year on Remembrance Sunday and it really was horrific.

I think I am going to discuss it with DD as she goes along, as I think otherwise to just read it and dumb is down is really a pointless exercise. It's not even as though it is a book that will challenge their reading, so I see no point in doing it.

OP posts:
cansu · 10/11/2010 06:12

Yes I did this is yesterday. We also read a text where a holocaust survivor criticises the book for precisely this reason. My feeling is that this book is an introduction to the topic. I think it is at a level that children of y7 & 8 can engage with and therefore I don't have a problem with that.

mummytime · 10/11/2010 07:03

I would be very cross, there are challenging books and this isn't one. Its the lack of challenge that makes it horrific.

Why not Goodnight Mr Tom which has very challenging themes and is a much more grown up writing style. But then I'm not a polite parent :)

sunnydelight · 10/11/2010 07:18

I haven't read the book so can't comment, but I have seen the film and I would be very unhappy at the school showing it to 9 year olds. It is definitely the kind of film where parents need to make a call depending on their children. You can obviously refuse permission for her to see it anyway as they can't show it to that age group without.

GrimmaTheNome · 10/11/2010 11:28

I don't see how this book would 'push the class on' if she dumbs it down - the actual writing is quite banal, not particularly interesting vocab or anything even.

Tinuviel · 10/11/2010 12:30

We did this at our home ed book club with the older ones and I chose to put my 10 year old in the younger group that month as I felt it was dealing with a subject matter that he was too young to really understand. Another 10 year old did read it.

I really don't think it is a primary age book and I don't think they should be showing a 12 film to younger children. In fact, I thought you weren't allowed to show an older-rated film in its entirety in school - you can show excerpts if they are relevant to a topic studied.

singersgirl · 10/11/2010 12:34

It's not rubbish because it's written for children, as other people have said. It's rubbish because it's implausible, falsely arch and generally irritating. Even that ridiculous misunderstanding of the word Fuhrer that doesn't work in German annoyed me.

'Once', 'Then' and 'Now' by Morris Gleitzman are much better child's eye viewpoint books, IME.

ZZZenAgain · 10/11/2010 12:42

my dd has just turned 10 and wouldn't want to read it (as in know more than she does already know about concentration camps).

We read Who was Anne Frank
here
when she was 9 which was ok for her at that age. I didn't go into a whole lot of detail on the holocaust but out of interest she flicked through a book on display in the library (dc's dept) and was extremely upset for a very long time afterwards.

Then Enemy Brothers which was one of her all time favourite books ( I think being British, born in Germany, it appealed for that reason, don't really know)
here

and a couple of other books for dc covering the experience of occupation or living in Britain during the air-raids/evacuation etc

I think you can confront dc too early with all the horrors of the concentration camps and unless it is an experience members of your family went through, in which case it would be spoken of in the family and maybe you'd start reading about it earlier, I would personally leave it till secondary.

Bue · 10/11/2010 17:31

I sort of agree with others. IMO Number the Stars is a superior and far better written Holocaust novel for children that age.

Ragwort · 10/11/2010 17:35

I haven't read the book but I watched the film with my 9 year old and yes, it was very sad and we cried most of the way through it, but I felt it really generated a good discussion and was a useful 'bonding' exercise - seeing as I can't bear to watch most of his TV/DVD choice - disclaimer, I know it was a 12 which I wouldn't usually allow but made an exception in this case.

sims2fan · 15/11/2010 16:10

I haven't read the book or seen the film, so can't really comment on that, but I really don't think that they should show films that have a higher rating than the age of the children. That's up to the parents to decide whether they can watch them at home, in my opinion. I know a couple of years ago the junior school attached to the infant school where I worked took the children to the cinema to see whichever Harry Potter was out at the time, but it was at least number 4, and was definitely a 12A. I can't remember if it was the whole school, or just one or two year groups, but I know that a couple of our TAs had girls in Year 5, so Year 5s (aged 9-10) definitely went. I didn't think this was appropriate for the school to be taking them to see. Yes, they required permission slips, but I can imagine a few parents felt that they had to sign them so that their children would fit in, but actually didn't want them to go. I think that schools should have a responsibility to stick to guidelines and rating systems, and leave it up to parents to decide whether they think their child is actually mature enough to watch something 'too old' for them.

mummytime · 15/11/2010 16:42

At my local school parents have no problems with not giving permission for children to go on trips of which they disapprove. I am shocked if a school is truly going to show a film with an inappropriate rating for the age groups (but have known parents worry when a clip of Gladiator was shown, it was just for the costumes and was carefully choosen).

IIHOHII · 17/06/2015 09:35

@thisisyesterday

'i actually think it's a shit book...'

Such a statement, expressed in such terms and with such little finesse, demonstrates that you are completely unqualified to make a judgment.

Perhaps stick to reading the Mail? Or one of the glossies?

Lancelottie · 17/06/2015 09:41

Well, maybe in the FIVE YEARS since making that comment, Thisisyesterday has changed her mind about it.

Or maybe not.

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