Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
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Book Reviews of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Book Review: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Summary: 5 Stars
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl By: A. B.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was a tragic story about a young Jewish girl named Anne Frank and her family. In the book Anne Frank was thirteen years old and came from a well to do family. She was a happy, pretty, athletic and very smart girl that had every thing going for her. The one exception was that she came from a Jewish family living in Germany during a time when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party made life for Jewish people very difficult. Anne's parents moved their family to Amsterdam in hopes of a better life. Life in Amsterdam for the Franks went very smoothly for the first five years. In June of the sixth year Anne celebrated her 13th birthday. It was at her 13th birthday party that Anne received the one present that she wanted most of all, a diary that she named " Kitty". Shortly after life became extremely difficult for the Jews and Anne's family had to go into hiding. They left their nice apartment and moved into a secret annex of an office building. Over the next two years Kitty became Anne's best friend. One of Anne's biggest dreams was to become a great writer someday. It's quite certain that Anne never realized that her diary would someday be published and become an important part of world history.
During the two years that Anne's family was in hiding, Anne's diary was not only a tool for her to become a better writer but also the one thing that she could confide in, since she had no real friends during this time. One reason that the book is so interesting is that her daily entries are very similar to most teenage girls today. Even though Anne and her family were in hiding for two years her entries were mostly very upbeat. She talks about things like her family, boys, her likes, her dislikes and her rocky relationship with her mother. Anne was very close to her father but never really had a good relationship with her mother. Anne's diary had many entries about how her mom was always against her. One entry talks about how her mom always accused her of things, which hurt her deeply. Anne said, "Like arrows from a tightly strong bow, which are nearly impossible to pull from my body." Anne blamed her mom for many of her problems but later realized that she was really only getting mad at her mom because they had to be in hiding.
Like most girls her age Anne's diary had many entries about a certain boy she liked. The Van Daan Family came to share the annex with the Frank family soon after they arrived. They had a son named Peter that Anne became very close with over time. Peter became the only friend that Anne could confide in. After the first year of hiding, Anne and Peter became girlfriend and boyfriend. On April 14, 1942 Peter finally kissed Anne in his attic bedroom. The next day she reported these words in her diary, "Remember the date."
I mostly enjoyed reading Anne's entries about the family's favorite time of the day in the secret annex. The secret annex had four rooms behind a bookcase in the upstairs of an office building. People who lived in the secret annex could not make any noise at all during the day so that they would not be discovered. Everyday at six o' clock the office workers went home; that was the time of the day that they loved the most. They could laugh, move around freely, and tell jokes. It makes me feel happy that at least a couple of hours during the day they were happy.
There are many parts of the diary that can make any reader very sad. The entries in the diary that disturbed me the most are the ones where Anne records her biggest fears. She often feared that she would not live to see the next day. Many entries during July 1943 talked about how Anne was awakened many nights by loud sirens and bombs falling. She records a day that more then 200 people were found dead.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was not only a very interesting book but also very educational. Everyone should read this book, especially middle school aged girls. Many of Anne's diary entries are just ordinary things that girls our age can relate to. Middle school years are when we learn about WWII, Hitler and his Nazi party and how they discriminated against and killed millions of Jews. A lot of young people rather read non-historical books but I highly recommend reading Anne's diary because I found that each page was more fascinating than the next. It was very hard for me to put the book down. The actual examples that Anne gives about her life during those times are much more interesting than reading about WWII from a history book. Our school history books teach us the overall history of WWII but Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl gives us a day-by-day record of what life truly was like from a young Jewish girls perspective. The Diary will make the reader want to learn more about what Anne's life was like before and after her diary.
Book Review: Young girl, heck. Diary of a young woman is more like it.
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine that someday you are remembered for all eternity at a very particular time and at a very particular age. You could be remembered forever as being 25 on September the 11th or you could be remembered as being 44 when JFK was shot. It seems awfully cruel for someone to be remembered between the ages of 13 to 15. Do you remember what you were like at that age? Would you want anyone to think of you as that old for as long as your name is remembered? Such is the fate of Anne Frank. Now, I never read this book when I was young. High schools, in my experience, tend to assign the play version of this story when they want to convey Anne Frank's tale. Anne tends to be remembered as the little girl who once wrote, "I still believe that people are really good at heart" in spite of her sufferings. So I should be forgiven for expecting this book to be the dewy-eyed suppositions of a saintly little girl. Instead, I found someone with verve, complexity, and a personality that I did not always particularly like. What I discovered, was the true Anne Frank.
The diary of Anne begins when she is 13 years of age and the Jews are already wearing yellow stars in Amsterdam. Anne is your usual precocious girl, flirting with boys and being impudent when she can get away with it. When at last the time comes for the Franks to go into hiding (Margot Frank, Anne's sister, has been issued an order for her removal) they do so with another family, the Van Daans. In a small floor hidden above Otto Frank's old workplace the two families are aided by faithful friends and employees. Over the course of the diary we watch and listen through Anne's eyes as, for two years, the people in the attic are put through terrible deprivations and trials. There are good times and bad, but Anne is a singularly biased narrator and her observations must usually be taken with a grain of salt. After a while you become so comfortable with Anne's observations and voice that the final page of the narrative comes as a shock when the capture of Anne and her family is finally announced.
I recently had the mixed pleasure of finding and rereading my own diary from around the age of 14. After forcing myself to look through the occasional passage here and there I was forced to conclude that for her age, Anne is a marvelous writer. She has a sense of drama, tension, and narrative that is particularly enthralling. It's painful to think about what a great writer she could have been had she lived any longer. Honestly, the Anne I met in this book showed all the worst characteristics of her age. I found her detestation of her own mother to be particularly repugnant. Then I remembered... she's an early adolescent. Of course she hates her mother! Of course she's just simply awful a lot of the time. But you can see who she's becoming, and that's what makes the book so hard to get through. You can see her growth and her character. You know that she's learning and trying to understand what it means to be a human being during World War II. It's all the more awful that this would be the age she was preserved at.
The book is remarkable on so many levels. I think young teenage girls will understand Anne's plight intrinsically. Who couldn't? Who doesn't remember the rocky years of 13-15? The need for attention? The sobbing for no particular reason? By the end of the diary, Anne becomes far more philosophical. She no longer records the family's every move and action. Instead, she ponders questions like whether or not young people are lonelier than old people. Or what it means to be good. Though you may not like the protagonist of this book at all times, you come to understand and sympathize with her. She is a remarkable author, all the more so when you consider that this diary was written for her eyes alone at the time. If I could require kids to read something in school, I think this would top the list. It probably remains the best Holocaust children's book in existence today.
Book Review: Anne Frank: Breaking the Code
Summary: 5 Stars
I am just a mere speck on a human tapestry moved and saddened by the Diary of Anne Frank. It's just a book you say. Tell that to the millions who have read the diary. Tell that to those who have seen the stage play, the movies, the documentaries, and the World Wide Web pages. Tell that to the Japanese schoolgirl who said her heart danced in the Secret Annex. Tell that to me who, for almost three decades, has pondered the riddle of emotion that Anne's diary calls forth. A code I have never been able to crack. Anne started writing her diary, the same age I began reading it. I was just thirteen and had chosen the diary as part of a year eight reading course. I still have my relic, a Pan edition version of the publisher's 30th printing of the diary in 1974. It bears markings of many readings: starched yellow pages, corners bent, a dusty old library smell reflecting its ancient mid-seventies origin. I don't know why I chose her story. I had never heard of Anne Frank, never heard of her diary, never heard of 263 Prinsengracht, the Frank family-hiding place - Anne's "Secret Annex" - in war weary Amsterdam. But for whatever reason, not long after the moon left its dust on Armstrong, Anne Frank left her mark on me.
I went to Amsterdam once where all I could think about was Anne. As I made my way to 263 Prinsengracht, I half expected to see her, a blurry pink blush peddling past on her bicycle, or skating over some canal's wintry surface. And then standing outside The Shrine, what would this wedge of a structure tell me about Anne. Would I feel its ghosts...smell the fear of Jews in hiding...see Anne's frosted breadth on a window ... hear Anne singing, talking, whispering fear...writing her most sacred thoughts... her love for Peter...the fondness for her father...the problems with her mother... her dreams for a post-War world ...would Anne hear me coming...hello Anne are you there...
For some Anne might be the patron saint of teenagers. But she is no saint. She is one of us and that is her magic. In a dedication to Anne, the Mayor of Amsterdam once said that Anne Frank was not an abstract symbol for the millions who died during World War II. She was more than a symbol, she was reality itself. For the millions affected by the diary, Anne's voice somehow provides meaning and understanding in a cruel, violent and incomprehensible world. Anne taught us that tolerance, freedom and respect for human dignity count for more, than insane and corrupt ideologies.
When world leaders talk war and peace, they should remember there are many Anne's. Someplace there will be this island of human emotions: laughter, gaiety, innocence, love, fear, forgiveness. She tells us that the individual's quest for happiness means more than any depraved collective dream. Anne knew this when she said the best remedy for unhappiness was to go somewhere quiet where one could be alone with the heavens, nature and God. As long as happiness existed, she said, there would "always be comfort for every sorrow". Anne showed us how to live when there is an inferno at our doorstep. For this reason, her book should be read by all. For this reason, her diary's message will be eternal. If we have broken the code, it will be for one reason. We will always need Anne.
Book Review: Diary of Anne Frank
Summary: 5 Stars
Anne Frank "The Diary of Anne Frank"
The title of the book is "The Diary of Anne Frank". The author is Anne Frank. The genre is fiction, and the theme to this book is that we are all the same. Yes, we have different color of skin, different beliefs. But we still have the same rights that we have today. Families were separated; people were killed, but worst of all. A girl wrote down her every thought during World War II, while she was in hiding. How would you feel if you were never allowed outside, because you didn't want to put your family in danger or get caught? That Anne Frank had to live, could you?
The book is about a family who was living during when World War II was taking place. Jews weren't allowed to go certain places; kids couldn't go to school if there were Jewish. Most of all, families of Jews had to go to Concentration Camps. Concentration Camp was someplace where children, women, men, and even elders were put to work. Anne and her family were in hiding that time, but not for long. Anne and her family had to live in a place called "The Annex". "The Annex" was where her father worked and now was their new home. Anne had an older sister named Marco, who you could say was the smart one of the two sisters. Anne wasn't much like Marco who did crossword puzzles in her spare time, but wrote in her journal she got for her 13th birthday. Anne always dreamed about being an actress when she grew up, but never knew if that would ever be able to happen since everything that was going on during the time. But if she didn't survive the Holocaust, she wanted her diary to be published, because she wanted everyone to know she went while she was in hiding. Now she didn't write about boys she had a crush on. Well maybe a boy was mentioned in there once or twice, but I'm not going to spoil it for you. Anyway, she wrote her thoughts, not only her thoughts, but her secrets. See she named her diary Kitty because; she had no one to talk to. Yes she may have had her mother and sister, but really weren't the kind of the secrets you share you share with your friends. She wrote about how she was so worried about the Nazis finding her family and taking her and her family away. She wondered how long she was not going to be able to go outside, and once again smell the fresh air, hear the birds chirp. When was she going to be free again?
This book was not a happy ending, like most other story in the world. The most terrible part of the story is when she and her family are being transported to the Concentration Camp. Anne doesn't know where her family is and it just hurts inside to picture this in my mind. I know that we are all Americans and we have our civil rights and there is no reason that this girl should have died at the age of 13 and six million Jews as well. Although Anne dream of becoming an actress, her father , who was the only one of the Franks to survive grant his daughters wish by publishing her as a book.
I recommend this book because my grandfather was in The Holocaust, and he lost his whole entire family just like Otto Frank (Anne's Father). I am honored to be his granddaughter and tell you after reading this book you will not have the same feelings when you picked up this book. It will make you understand how life was when Anne Frank was a child and how today your life is.
Book Review: A bright soul in a dark time
Summary: 5 Stars
I have finally, at the age of 33, gotten around to reading Anne Frank's diary. There is little point in adding another glowing review. Everything has been said. But after reading some of the negative reviews, I feel compelled to respond. It seems there are two primary criticisms (Three if you count the ridiculous idea that the diary is a forgery, which I won't dignify). The first is that Anne doesn't talk a lot about the war or the holocaust. To this, I can only say, that's all for the better. She was a thirteen year girl living in total isolation from the rest of the world. She really had no special expertise or light to shed on these subjects. There are many excellent history books on both of these subjects. The second criticism is simply that the book is boring. She talks too much about her day to day life, her thoughts, her feelings, and so on. To this I can only say, what part of "Diary of a Young Girl" is ambiguous? The annex was her entire world. What do you expect her to write about?
What a few don't seem to understand is that this is not a "book about World War II", or even about the holocaust. If that is what she had written about, the diary wouldn't even be a footnote in history. This is the story of one young girl, in her own voice, trying to figure out what it means to live, to grow, and to be human in the most depraved and inhumane circumstances. She wrote about her hopes, her dreams, her fears, and occasionally about peeling potatoes. But the thing that some people don't see is that even when writing about the most mundane topics, she was actually writing about people, about how they endure and falter, about how they come together and how they fall apart. And despite the enormous injustice she endured, she always made the case for optimism, for hope in humanity, and for love of life. I don't know that I can agree with her, having adopted a more cynical outlook, but that just increases my admiration for her and my shame in myself for not living the gift of live to the fullest.
The other thing that stands out is the maturity of the writing. After reading just the first entry, I was blown away by the eloquence and clarity of Anne's writing. I could hardly believe that I was reading the prose of a 13 year old girl. She does write a lot about the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl, but the voice of the writing does not feel childish at all, except perhaps in its optimism. The world lost a great talent and a brilliant soul to those murderous barbarians.
This is a difficult book to digest, and two days after finishing, I'm still haunted by it. Anne's optimism, faith, and courage inspired me throughout, but made the knowledge of what would come at the end all the more a bitter pill to swallow. All that we can do is to honor her by making sure her story and the story of millions of holocaust victims are never forgotten and never happen again. So far, we're not doing so well with that.
And there, I've done it. I've written a review. I didn't intend to, but I did. So go out and read it, if you haven't.