Book Review of Diary of Anne Frank -- Sage Heffley

Title of the Book: Diary Of Anne Frank

Author: Anne Frank (Edited by Otto H Frank and

Mirjam Pressler)

# of Pages: 338

Star Rating:  ☆☆☆☆ (It is a one of a kind book)

Review:

Anne Frank begins her diary with why she started writing in her diary, as well as how she got the dairy. On her birthday, June 12, she laid awake waiting for the time she was allowed to get up to wake her parents  and reveal the gifts she had received. Laying on the table, was the journal, soon to be known as The Diary of Anne Frank. While learning how to organize her writing, she would “confide in herself” to Kitty, a make believe person that she would soon write to every day that she had time to. Anne Frank was just an ordinary girl, continuing her ordinary life, while World War II was happening around her. On July 6, 1942, Anne Frank's family and her father's friends family go into hiding due to the fact that they were Jews. The Diary is a first hand account of her life in the Secret Annex while the war continued.

Anne Frank’s diary is something that is so powerful because you can envision how

her life was before and during hiding. In school we all learn about World War II, but being lectured and reading assignments don’t quite capture the full feel that Anne Frank had experienced and shared with us. Throughout the book, you can tell how Anne goes from a young immature girl to a young woman that is strong and, at most times. would act very mature, even though she was only 14 years old. Anne experiences flashes of real-life even though she is being sheltered from the outside world by hiding in the Secret Annex. We see Anne experiencing real life when she and Peter Van Daan have a normal relationship and can rely on one another for comfort and still enjoy being young. It is something you can connect to yourself, because we’re still young and learning how to get a grip on life.

It is hard to say what this kind of a book is lacking because it is in a dairy form. For me, I think one of the most important things that the dairy is lacking is a day-to-day account of what was happening. This was hard for Anne to have time to write everyday, explaining what events were happening. Some days, maybe there was nothing interesting or worthy to write down, but knowing how important this event was in history, I would have liked a day-to-day passage including what she did, or what happened that day. I also would have liked to know what happened after the 8 people in the Secret Annex were arrested, although it would’ve been nearly impossible to get something written, or for that matter anything, from Anne to express what happened after she taken to the concentration camps. I think there could have been more added to the “Afterword” by Otto or someone else that also had a first hand account from a concentration camp.

If you like to learn about World War II, this would be a great book for you to learn what it was like to live during that time period. Even if you don’t, this is a must read, because it is a good read and makes you really think how lucky you are to be alive in today's world. There is so much to learn about World War II and with The Diary of Anne Frank, it really captures a lot that there is to know.