The Diary of a Young Girl

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank


Publisher: Pocket Books/Washington Square Press

Genre: Non fiction
Where I got it: From the middle school library, had heard a lot about this book before.

One sentence summary: This book shows the attempt of Jewish families to hide from the atrocities of the Nazi, unfortunately they are found and send to a concentration camp, Anne dies, and so does all the Frank family except the father who published the book.

First sentence of the book: On Friday, June 12th, I woke up at six o’clock and no wonder; it was my birthday.

First Chapter Review: Anne is telling how her life is, this is before the holocaust. She doesn’t really trust in anyone much, so she hopes that this diary she got for her 13th birthday will listen to her, this chapter only talks about her as a normal girl, not anything about Nazi’s.

Verdict: This was an interesting book, got boring at times since it wasn’t action packed, but enjoyable. Would I recommend it? Yes, but if you are a person who likes action don’t go for this book, you will abandon it halfway through.


Cover Comments: The cover only shows the face of Anne Frank, she seems to be sad, but the context of the picture’s setting or time is not clear.

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix, is a very compelling dystopian – a novel that takes place at an imperfect society- that follows the life of Luke, a third child that is banned by law. This novel is the first book in the Shadow Children sequence. This book may appeal to dystopian geeks.

Luke, the protagonist of the story, is a shy 12 year old boy who has never been part of society because he must be kept hidden. He does play with his brothers Mark and Matthew but other than that he doesn’t socialize.

The theme of this story is fairly easy to spot as the author gives subtle hints to what it is. The theme is a really broad theme that must be instilled in our childhood.

Among the Hidden gives you a lot of background information about Luke thus the conflict of the story comes in a bit late, but this background information is vital for the book and specially for the series in itself. It shows you how Luke has lived. The climax is very unexpected and will leave readers shocked.

This book is not as action packed as most people would like, but it seems like the series will, so I will continue reading it. I would recommend this book for people that wil be patient and read the first couple of books in the series, or for people that like dystopian novels.