The Diary of a Young Girl

olliebob - This book is so meaningful. It's down to earth, but at the same time, I can't imagine anything that Anne went through happening to me. Anne is a real girl during the Holocaust. She lived a regular life, and then WWII started up. Her family and several others were forced into hiding to avoid concentration camps, commonly known as Nazi death camps. Hitler was insane and prejudiced against Jews. He felt that their religion was an excuse to treat them horribly. Anne's and several other families hid in a storehouse, which was owned by a friend of their's who was not a Jew. As Anne pours her heart out to her diary, which she calls Kitty, we can feel the weight of thousands of people on our shoulders. We weep for those who were lost in WWII and those who lost loved ones. Anne go's through her teenage years hidden away, years she should have been able to spend with friends. Hitler started a war, and then, after generations of lives were lost, he killed himself. This book would be a hard subject for kids under 4th grade to read. Thank you.

Starred review from January 30, 1995
This startling new edition of Dutch Jewish teenager Anne Frank's classic diary--written in an Amsterdam warehouse, where for two years she hid from the Nazis with her family and friends--contains approximately 30% more material than the original 1947 edition. It completely revises our understanding of one of the most moving and eloquent documents of the Holocaust. The Anne we meet here is much more sarcastic, rebellious and vulnerable than the sensitive diarist beloved by millions. She rages at her mother, Edith, smolders with jealous resentment toward her sister, Margot, and unleashes acid comments at her roommates. Expanded entries provide a fuller picture of the tensions and quarrels among the eight people in hiding. Anne, who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, three months before her 16th birthday, candidly discusses her awakening sexuality in entries that were omitted from the 1947 edition by her father, Otto, the only one of the eight to survive the death camps. He died in 1980. This crisp, stunning translation provides an unvarnished picture of life in the ``secret annex.'' In the end, Anne's teen angst pales beside her profound insights, her self-discovery and her unbroken faith in good triumphing over evil. Photos not seen by PW.

November 1, 1994
This new translation of Frank's famous diary includes material about her emerging sexuality and her relationship with her mother that was originally excised by Frank's father, the only family member to survive the Holocaust.