\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/038560940X/ref=pd_kar/026-6724133-9973231\John Boyne: The boy in the striped pyjamas} is heavily marketed atm, and caught ds1's eye in Borders last week.
The blurb on the book gives very little away (though the cover and title gave us some concern):
"The story of the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the jacket, 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."
Anyway fortunately I read the book first to check it out. I wouldn't recommend it for children under the age of at least 13. In order to appreciate the book they need to already know quite a bit about the Holocaust and Auschwitz, and they need to be able to cope with the horror of the book (which for many children may be quite a lot older than 13). DS1 would not have understood the book at all, which to me seems in some ways to be even worse than being horrified and traumatised by it.
I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone for various other pernickety reasons. But thought I should flag it up for parents of younger fluent readers.