Comparison of 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and 'Bombs on Aunt Dainty'

For my book comparison I have chosen to do ‘Bombs on Aunt Dainty’ by Judith Kerr and ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by John Boyne. These two books both deal with a war situation and how children handle it. I will compare how each of the main characters cope with fighting, death, experiences, hardships and what their relationship with their family is like.

‘Bombs on Aunt Dainty’ is about a teenage girl living in London during the war. Her family has escaped Anti-Semitic Germany and are now immigrants in England. Firstly, she can’t find a job; secondly, her, Cambridge attending, brother gets put in prison; thirdly, her father has a stroke and finally, she falls in love. The book deals with different aspects of her family’s life all from her perspective but still in third person.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is about an 8 year old boy called Bruno whose father is a Nazi General.

Bruno Senna

Foule Bruno Pelletier

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

At the start of the book the family are relocated from Berlin to a house in the middle of nowhere; Bruno is distraught to leave his friends in Berlin and the only people anywhere near the house are all stuck behind a tall fence at the end of the garden. Bruno gets lonelier and eventually decides to explore; he follows the fence along looking for some gap, instead he finds a small boy sitting on the other side of the fence. They become friends and meet often until one day Bruno decides to go with the boy to the other side of the fence. Bruno and his friend are never seen again. This book deals with the low level of understanding children sometimes have of the war.

*In ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ Bruno is much less aware...