If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Written by the same author of “Madame Doubtfire” (Mrs. Doubtfire movie starring Robin Williams), the book begins with a noisy class of pre-teen boys in the UK on their usual day of traumatising their form teacher, Mr Cartright.
This day, the teacher is reviewing their project options for the Science Fair.
Naturally, the boys all want past projects like “the Soap Factory”, “the Maggot Farm” or “the Exploding Custard Tins”…
“If you start to read this book, sooner or later you will arrive at a fence.
Fences like this exist all over the world.
We hope you never have to encounter such a fence.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve been *excited* over a book, until this one. First, the striped cover with the simple title attracted me. The blurb piqued my curiosity and I started to read…
And I couldn’t put it down! Not even on the night before we flew back to China. Hubby was quite P.O.ed with me about it but I really couldn’t help it…
I eventually hijacked the book (and have returned it to its rightful owner)
The story begins with 9 year old Bruno finding out that he has to move to a new house because his father, a Commandant in the German army, has “a very special job”.
Naturally, Bruno isn’t happy about the news, especially as his homemaker Mum is unnaturally stressed and touchy about it. His elder sister, whom he calls “A Hopeless Case” is nonchalant about it and the boy seeks out other folks in the house, namely the Jewish servant, Maria.
Their new house is the opposite of where Bruno used to live - a drab house, a lonesome neighbourhood with no other children in sight. He misses his friends a lot and the only fascinating distraction is that the house overlooks a FENCE.
In his interactions with his stern father, his increasingly nervous mother and his petrified servants, Bruno tries to find out more about the people who live on the other side of the fence. Through his childish eyes, they seem to be having more fun than him because there were other people and children.
His elder sister, infatuated with the young Lieutenant Kotler, is not bothered with him and one day, Bruno decides to go against his father’s rules and do some EXPLORATION. To his joy, he finds a little friend named Schmuel on the other side of the fence.
Bruno is ecstatic at having a friend to talk to again that he just wants to burst with joy - somehow, after a lot of thought, his young mind cautions him against sharing this precious bit of info, especially in the light of other events:
his teacher, Herr Liszt, tells him that the people on other side of the fence are “the opposite” of them and also, a bit about the Aryan’s rights etc;
he witnesses a disturbingly violent scene involving Lt. Kotler and the Jewish doctor-servant;
his Mum tells him NOT to tell his Dad that the Jewish doctor-servant dressed up his wound
The ending is a tragic one - both for the boys and their families. And of course, for 6,000,000 European Jews.
I’ve read MANY books on the Holocaust, both fiction and non-fiction, but this is the first time I’ve read of one being told from the eyes of the other side, especially that of a young child.
The best one that I can recall discussing this highly sensitive topic in a classroom with young children is an article from the Reader’s Digest called, “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes”.
————————————————–
COMMENT: When I discussed this topic in one of my college classes, I was shocked when many students from the Chinese schools had NO idea what I was talking about. This is worrying because when compared with mainland Chinese students, the latter knew about it due to their close historic ties with Germany.
I am always worried for students whose reading materials are mainly made up of academic textbooks, workbooks and comic books. Thus, in every one of my English classes, I’d encourage them to check out other books by appealing to their basic interests.
After giving them a brief summary of the events, some of them pooh-poohed it, claiming:
“Oh, this involves Jews…it doesn’t involve us.”
This remark, of course, sparked off a lively debate when other, more aware students protested that this is SO naive (a few students even said, “You’re so stupid!”)
In a few minutes, the class would erupt into a full fledged World War III since this is a highly emotional topic. After asking the firebrands to
“Please calm down. Let’s SIT and discuss this further…”,
I pointed out to the class that yes, the Holocaust may not apply to us because it
mainly involved Jews and
happened in Europe, which seems so, so far away from us.
I then told them about the classroom experience of “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” and showed them that discrimination can easily begin from simple things like:
Spectacles vs no spectacles (some of the naysayers squirmed)
Straight hair vs curly hair (some of the boys grinned *naughtily*)
Large eyes vs small eyes (most of the Chinese kids’ eyes narrowed)
From little things, bigger issues can be used to discriminate e.g. skin colour, race, economic backgrounds, religion, nationality etc. It’s just a matter of time before the group in power arrives at the item that applies to YOU.
According to the one of the sources in the Wikipedia article, one of Hitler’s ambitions at the start of the war was to
“exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all Slavs so as to make living space for German settlers.”
Historical records found that non-Jewish victims were also killed:
Soviet POWs: 2–3 million Ethnic Poles: 1.8-2 million Roma (popularly known as “gypsies”): 220,000–500,000 Disabled: 200,000–250,000 Freemasons: 80,000–200,000 Gay men: 5,000–15,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses: 2,500–5,000
In one of the historical books I read, records of Asians among the dead were also found.
Basically, Hitler wanted to create a PERFECT society of blue-eyed and blonde Germans. Isn’t it ironic that nobody pointed out the fact that he was neither blonde, blue eyed or perfect himself? See how dangerous a charismatic leader can be? People can be so easily blinded.
This is why I WILL NEVER EVER agree to the principle of throwing out people from discussion groups/forums just because the group doesn’t agree with what that person has to say. Get the point?
————————————————–
John Boyne’s first book written for children, I found out that:
“Unlike the months of planning Boyne had for his other books, he said that he wrote the entire first draft of Boy in two and a half days, barely sleeping until he got to the end.”
Thank God the lightbulb lit up for him and also that he followed his instinct and penned it down!
This truly original take on the Holocaust is causing ripples around the world as the book has been translated into languages including Chinese, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, Greek, German, Greek, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai and Turkish! Various Eastern Europe editions are also available.
A Miramax film adaptation of the novel was shot in Budapest between April and June 2007. The film will be released September 12, 2008 in Ireland and the UK, on September 17, 2008 in China and Japan, and on October 3, 2008 in Finland.
I know I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open for the movie!
If you haven’t read this book, you SHOULD get a copy today:
Ok, I really need the experts on Chinese culture and customs to help me out on this one. As my father had recently passed away, I’m wondering if I can celebrate Chinese New Year?
When he died:
…my Mum was prohibited from visiting my cousin (or even my auntie’s house) as she’d recently gotten married.
…none of [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ABananaInChina/~4/412856838" height="1" width="1"/>
