Customer Reviews

The Diary of a Young Girl

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I recently read The Diary of Anne Frank: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank. I told my parents that I was reading it and they told me it was a good book, but I never thought I would like it as much as I did. I liked this book so much because you got to know Anne, her family and the guests that were staying with them in the place they called the Secret Annex. Anne let you know exactly what was happening which made me feel like I had actually been there right by her side. What also made the writing of the book excellent in my opinion was that Anne was a very outgoing girl. She made the passages in her diary sound more exciting to make the reader want to read more. You also got to know Anne more mentally than any other person in the book. She shares her inner most thoughts and feelings with her diary, Kitty. I also thought it was very interesting to find out that all the members in the annex hid from the Nazis for a little over 2 months. This book has definitely changed my outlook on the Holocaust and life. I recommend it to anyone!

This complete edition of Anne's diary makes us realize how hard it was for Anne to live in her "Secret Annex", hiding from the Nazis. During the WWII, it wasn't easy for Jews to survive, so Anne, her family, and a couple of friends, decided to hide in a building, which they renamed the "Secret Annex". While the other editions omitted Anne's more private thoughts, this edition is more complete and Anne's private thoughts about sexuality are also included. Her fear about being caught by Nazis is overwhelming, however she soon ignores these fears and must face constant famine and the challenges of becoming a woman. Often disagreeing with her mother, she runs to Peter, a boy of her age, for advice. It is then that she slowly discovers she is having mixed feelings about this boy whom she rarely paid any attention to. She starts discovering what love is, but how can she continue her relationship with Peter when she hears Nazi airplanes throwing bombs in the city every night?

Anne was a very strong person and, day after day, was glad she was alive, even though things didn't always go her way. After a while, she got used to her routine and never thought the Germans would one day discover her secret hiding place. However, as the Nazis got stronger, they one day discovered the Frank's secret hiding place, and Otto, Anne's father, was the only one out of the eight people in the annex who survived the concentration camps. When he returned to the Secret Annex after his liberation, he found Anne's diary and passed on her message to the world. This book is a good way towards a better understanding of what Jews had to live through during the second World War.

I earnestly almost cried after reading this book.I was 13,the same age as Anne's when she started writing her diary,whom she called "kitty".

For those who have no idea who Anne Frank is,she is a Jewish girl and the youngest of two girls.Her father was successful businessman...and the family led a happy and wonderful life after settling down in the bustling city of Amsterdam,that was until Adolf Hitler started the Nazis.The Nazis was an anti-Jew operation,where they would capture Jewish men and tortured them.The women and young and old were not let off either,many were sent to concentration camps,where living conditions there were so bad,many died of diseases rather than the slow torturings.

It was at this time that Mr Frank decided to go into hiding with his family.With some of his kind-hearted co-workers,they managed to perfect a secret hideout.Anne,her mother and sister Margot began moving into the hideout,which was located just behind the office.Joining them were the Van Dans (not sure if spelling is right)who had a son named Peter and a doctor.Life was very tough,for living behind the office with barely a bookshelf as a wall means not making loud noises.No one must know of their existense,so all everybody could do is to crept round their area softly,tip-toeing and even speaking in hush-whistle.

For almost 2 years,that's the life of Anne.A growing teenager,she could not go out to the streets to watch a movie,play with her friends or even talk to boys,for that means getting caught by the Nazis.It was also round this time that Anne had one true friend where she can confide everything to:kitty,her diary.

In her diary,she wrote of how talkative she was in class(she went to school before the hiding),how she hates her mother when the latter compared her to her sister Margot,how she detested Mrs Van Dam...and her deepest thoughts on growing up in a secret hideout.She also shared about her crush on Peter,who also liked her.

Anne,as we could see,was a normal girl,someone who detested writing,someone who likes a boy and someone who wants to grow up being an author.Well,you could say she is one now,with her diary published after the war, which was later translated to more than 50 languages and sold millions worldwide...but the young girl,unlike her diary,did not survived through the war,for she was captured from her hideout one fine day.Mrs Frank,Margot,the doctor,the Van Dams and Anne herself,all died.All except for Mr Frank himself,who survived...

By the way, a little unknown fact about her Anne:her real name is Annelies Marie Frank.

Anne Frank The diary of a Young Girl, I found was an interesting book, though I didn't find it having too much insight on the war. Bits and pieces were written about the war but basically her whole diary was about her and sometimes about her family. Which I do understand that usually a diary is written about you, your feelings and beliefs. From that point of view, I found that she had tremendous writing skills. I love the way she is so descriptive in describing her family, the Secret Annexe, and everything else that happens in her abnormal life. The little bit that she speaks of things happening in the world outside of the Secret Annexe, is extremely full of insight and feeling. Anne has a great way with words; she has skill and knows how to express herself. "The world has turned topsy-turvy, respectable people are being sent off to concentration camps, prisons, and lonely cells and the dregs that remain govern young and old rich and poor."(page 138 ) I thought this quote was a really well thought out piece of Anne, she felt very passionate about her writing and I believe that every word written down by her hand into her diary of dreams and thoughts, came straight from the heart. When I began reading the book, I tried putting myself in her position, to feel how she felt. When I did that is when I really began to understand her. I could now actually see the Secret Annexe. "Again and again I ask myself would it not have been better for us all if we had not gone into hiding, and if we were dead now and not going through all this misery, especially as we shouldn't be running our protectors into danger any more."(page 93 ) I can really comprehend with she feels, not because I have felt anything like that but because of the way she writes it. The feelings show so clearly. I learnt a great deal about the holocaust that I didn't know before, when I began researching for my presentation part of the project. I was horrified, disgusting and revolted by what I seen and read. It is so hard to believe that anything so horrifying and vile could possibly happen. And it is just mind boggling to wonder how it could happen and who could have done it all. To think that over 6 million Jews were killed in such horrid ways and the people that did it have little or no remorse. Through Anne was going through all this stuff she seemed to look above it and keep her hopes and spirits floating. For this reason and many more I adore Anne Frank and think that her and her family were brave and strong through those long awful nights that turned into weeks then to months. The book, I feel helped me make a great deal of understanding for how someone felt who was going through what we could only have nightmares of. Despite the fact that she had no idea millions of people would be reading her diary and knowing her most inner feelings made the book seem so much more innocent and free. She wrote entries in her diary through the most awful times of her short-lived life only for the satisfaction of herself. I would rate this book 8 out of 10.If someone is interested in the holocaust and wants to understand who it affected the Jews and to know exactly want they felt.

Anne Frank, a 13 year-old, strong-willed, and courageous girl, is living in the Secret Annex during WWII to escape the Nazi regime. Anne, along with her family and close friends, are hiding from the Nazis because they are of the Jewish faith. Anne falls in love with Peter, a 15 year-old boy who is living with her in the Secret Annex. They become very close as they spend time in the attic trying to escape Peter's annoying mother. The group living in the Secret Annex has to be extremely careful. If they make too much noise, they have a chance of being caught. If they are caught, they will most likely be sent to a concentration camp. Any loud noise or movement could cost the eight tenants of the Secret Annex to die.
"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" is an amazing book. It lets you realize how lucky we are to live in the world we live in today. The struggles that Anne and the group go through to live a "normal" life are nothing like anyone in today's world would be forced to go through. It allows people interested in WWII to gain information as to what is was like to live during the war.
"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" is a must read. It is ver informative, yet allows the reader to learn about WWII in an interesting way. So, if you like WWII and are interested in learning what it was like to live back then, this book is for you. It is also a good piece of historical fiction. Pick it up today!

Julie Francolino

Une histoire très touchante malgré les horreurs de la guerre. Anne n'avait pas peur de dire ce qu'elle pense dans son journal. Elle aurait été une superbe écrivaine.

I am not the type to be interested in, let alone read about, the foibles of an adolescent: yet I have just completed "The Diary of a Young Girl", by Anne Frank, for the second time. Why? Because her affecting story reaches far beyond the drudgery and angst her harsh living arrangements produced. This diary gives one a sense of how Anne's young spirit soared. She could see with precocious clarity, in her incorrigible way, the truth of so many 'adult' problems.

Everyone should read this book. Of course it's not "exciting" as some opine, but there are certain subjects that merit our attention without having to dangle the treat of "entertainment" before our eyes. This is one such subject. This diary is as real as it gets: it brings you 'into the trenches' with Anne and her family and reminds us that the millions of displaced Jews were real people, foibles and all, just like us.

The portraits of Anne Frank are misleading. I always thought Anne was a mature, humble and well-poised girl from her pictures. However, from reading her diary, I will say that I was totally wrong and that Anne was was plainly, a brat. Anne matures throughout her diary and the last entry in particular shows that she is very self-aware. I thought it was very interesting to read about the lives of people in hiding during the war. This book also rubbed me as a parenting-type book which I thought was a bit unexpected. I really liked this book and I think it reads very well. I know if my journal was edited and put together as a book, it would really suck, and so I am quite impressed by this diary.

I regret to say that it was only recently that I actually finally read this book, though I've one edition or another on my bookshelf since the sixth grade. And while I am tempted to do something of a joke review and talk about none of the events contained within the book were realistic and none of the people were believable as characters, I think I owe it to the people who actually went through that nightmare to do this thing seriously.

I became fascinated with what civilian life was like during World War 2 after seeing a book of my grandmother's: Robert Westall's Children of the Blitz. Plenty of books will tell me what the political side of the war was like, what it was like for the people on the front lines, doing the fighting, but there are too few books that will detail was it was like for those who were just trying to stay alive in their homes. It's one thing to shake your head and say it was a terrible time and to quote some statistics, but it's quite another to read something written by somebody who was actually there, talking about their life amid uncertainty and bombing and fear of being killed in the night. It brings it all home, makes something distant and sanitized seem actually real, and, if you think about it, might actually cause a sleepless night or two.

While reading this, I was struck with just how alike Anne was to the girls of her age that I knew and know. Occupied with the same problems, thinking the same thoughts, and never mind that Anne was in hiding from Nazis and nobody I know can claim that. Reading entries about things like her daily routine, her thoughts about others, the sense that "life goes on" really came through clearly. No matter what, no matter how serious the situation, we still remain ourselves and the same old things will still bother us. We may not complain about them as much, but they're still there.

I her thoughts about Peter to be particularly amusing. It started with, "Oh, he's so dull," went to, "He's interesting, but you mustn't think I'm in love with him, because I'm not," right to, "I can't stop thinking about him, I think I'm in love with him." Oh, teenagers.

I don't often come across books that I would recommend to everyone I meet, but it seems a shame if a person goes their life without reading this book. There are echoes of World War 2 still in our society today, and to not understand even a little of what that all means is a little bit sad. It's not knowing your own history, particularly if you're in, well, Europe, North America, various parts of Asia... Yeah, there's a reason it was called a World War, after all. If you happen to live in this world, do yourself a favour and read this book if you haven't already. It may not contain any stunning revelations about life, but you close the book at the end feeling a bit different than before.

I am terribly upset that I am reading this book only now, at the age of 22. Perhaps I would not have gotten the full affect of the Diary if I had read it as a school-aged child, but I do think I would have been able to learn some important lessons from it. I think it should be mandatory and included in school curriculum, like it is in many parts of the United States. Reading The Diary of Anne Frank really sparked an almost obsessive thirst for Holocaust and WWII literature. Again, because WWII was covered in a whole 3 or 4 lessons in my Grade 10 Canadian History class, I learned very little about what went on during that time. Thank you, Anne. Thank you for writing down all your thoughts and feelings. What a bright girl you are. I just hope as the years go by people will still be reading your story...even if it may be on their iPad or Kindle devices. Though, what scares me the most is that my generation was so briefly introduced and exposed to important literature about the not too distant past (let's face it, it's only been 65 years since the world was at war) so I can only imagine what future generations will know on the subject. I think every one should read Anne's Diary. Especially thirteen year olds, who will gain a lot of insight as to how blessed they are not to be in Anne's shoes- living in an occupied country, in hiding, in concentration camps, starving, dying of disease, etc.
In the preface to his memoir 'Night', Elie Wiesel states, "For the survivor that chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time." Though Anne became the dead, her voice will still remain. We must not let Anne die a second time.