A novel study for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. Student workbook + teacher booklet, built on The Writing Revolution. For Year 7 and Year 8 classrooms and homeschool families.
Why The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
This is the book where the reader understands what the narrator can’t.
Bruno is lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a house beside a strange camp he calls “Out-With”. On the other side of the fence he meets Shmuel, a boy his own age, and a friendship grows through conversation and the food Bruno shares.
Boyne builds the whole story on dramatic irony. Bruno mishears and misunderstands, while readers grasp exactly what he can’t, and that gap opens powerful conversations about perspective. The unit draws out a character study of Lieutenant Kotler, a comparison of Bruno’s and Shmuel’s experiences of the same events, and the symbolism of the Star of David.
What’s included
Each chapter follows the same activity sequence:
- Key vocabulary
- Summary sentence (who / what / when / where / why / how → one full sentence)
- Because, but, so (reasoning, contrast, cause and effect)
- Sentences and notes (both directions)
- Single Paragraph Outline (SPO) using The Writing Revolution
- Full paragraph with revision and editing
- Differentiation tips for every activity — below, at and above level
Plus:
- 10-week unit plan (with built-in catch-up weeks)
- Combined teacher booklet + student booklet — print or project
- Teacher booklet includes lesson plans, curriculum connections and modelled responses
- Aligned to the Australian Curriculum v9
- Print-and-go — no extra prep
Why this works
The same activities every week, on purpose. Consistent activities mean students spend their thinking on the book — not on working out what each new worksheet is asking. Built on The Writing Revolution: structured sentence and paragraph writing that proves a point about a novel.
This is for you if
- You teach The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as a class novel in Year 7 or Year 8
- You’re building a WWII or Holocaust unit into your HASS program and want the literacy side covered
- You’re a homeschool parent wanting a ready-to-go unit for a quality novel
- You’d rather print and teach than write discussion prompts from scratch
Made by a teacher librarian, not AI
I read every word of every book personally. I write every question and every model response myself. In a market flooded with AI units that don’t align to the actual text — this one does.
About Sarah
Made by Sarah Hodgson, teacher librarian, with 12+ years in primary classrooms (Prep to Year 6) as a classroom teacher, curriculum coordinator and teacher librarian.
Your head is in a million places. Mine gets to be in novels. Let me take this one off your plate.
