Year 7 Homework
Extract from ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’
Bruno’s mouth dropped open and he tried to remember the way you used your mouth if
you wanted to say the word ‘yes’. He’d never seen anyone look so terrified as Shmuel did at
that moment and he wanted to say the right thing to make things better, but then he
realized that he couldn’t; because he was feeling just as terrified himself.
‘Do you know this boy?’ repeated Kotler in a louder voice. ‘Have you been talking to the
prisoners?’
‘I … he was here when I came in,’said Bruno. ‘He was cleaning glasses.’
‘That’s not what I asked you, said Kotler. ‘Have you seen him before? Have you talked to
him? Why does he say you’re his friend?’
Bruno wished he could run away. He hated Lieutenant Kotler, but he was advancing on him
now and all Bruno could think of was the afternoon when he had seen him shooting a dog
and the evening whan Pavel had made him so angry that he –
‘Tell me, Bruno!’ shouted Kotler, his face growing red. ‘I won’t ask you a third time.’
‘I’ve never spoken to him,’ said Bruno immediately. ‘I’ve never seen him before in my life. I
don’t know him.’
Lieutenant Kotler nodded and seemed satisfied with the answer. Very slowly he turned his
head back to look at Shmuel, who wasn’t crying anymore, merely staring at the floor and
looking as if he was trying to convince his soul not to live inside his tiny body any more, but
to slip away and sail to the door and rise up into the sky, gliding through the clouds until it
was very far away.