Picked up at Goodwill today. Description from Amazon:

Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

My initial response to this book was that it was really good, but the more I think about it the more flaws I see. Most are fairly minor but they add up to make the book less than it might have been. One thing was his use of Out-With, Fury, etc., in place of the actual words. Since he was writing in English, it worked, but I think it probably wouldn't work in German. Plus, I didn't always believe in Bruno - some of his language seemed to be spot-on 9- and 10-year old, but some of his thoughts and memories seemed off. Like forgetting the names of his friends from Berlin - I have friends I haven't seen since I was 9 whose names I still remember.

Bruno seems to have a lot of unsupervised free time, which may be the case but I just feel someone would have caught on a lot sooner. Schmuel also seems to have a lot of free time to sit and do nothing, too.

Nevertheless, it was a compelling story, short and easy to read, and it makes one think about life on the opposite sides of the fence.

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(Left on book exchange in Medical Library.)