The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

The book was fairly well-received, but most of us found it a bit disappointing in its lack of depth.

Some highlights (spoiler alert!):

• Annoying and not believable that Bruno would really not know anything about what was going on – he was incredibly naïve, and why would he not have been indoctrinated into the Nazi mindset since his father was so high-ranking?
• Interesting to read it from the German perspective, even though the title character was Jewish
• Bruno’s conversations with Shmuel were ridiculously one-sided
• Gretel’s age seemed believable
• Why did Gretel not belong to Hitler’s girls’ organization?  Possibly because her mom was against it?
• Why was the father quizzing Lt. Kotler about his dad?  To test his loyalty, to see if he reported him
• Why would Kotler risk sleeping with Bruno’s mom?