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bridgeman98's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and War
zapkode's review against another edition
4.0
{my thoughts} - This book in my honest opinion is not a clear comparison to that of The Diary of Anne Frank. I enjoyed reading this book back when I was a child. I remember it was the first book I had ever gotten through a scholastic thingy from school. When I got the book I was so excited I read it cover to cover twice. I was in awe at the way it was written. An elven-year old girl wrote her diary in letter form. She had named her diary Mimmy. She write's to Mimmy about everything that is going on her life. A majority of the writing takes place by candle light and it helps her to work through her problems. I can't imagine being a child forced to live life during a war and seeing the devastating effects that it can have on them.
mdevlin923's review against another edition
3.0
The diary entries of Zlata Filipovic as she lived through the Bosnian War in Sarajevo from September 1991 to December 1993.
Zlata's entries encapsulate the spirit of a teenage girl: honest and frank, but also philosophical. It clearly demonstrates how war can ravage a country, a neighborhood, and a family.
Zlata's entries encapsulate the spirit of a teenage girl: honest and frank, but also philosophical. It clearly demonstrates how war can ravage a country, a neighborhood, and a family.
andrew_j_r's review against another edition
4.0
This is part of a chain read. My previous book in the chain was the the story of General Rose of UNROFOR in the Balkans war in the early nineties. This book is the diary of a young girl who lived in Sarajevo during that same conflict.
It’s scary to read. I kept a diary at about the same time, and the initial entries (before the war really comes it the city) read just like the kind of things I would have written, complete with short sentences and one word comments.
As the conflict escalates you just realise how dreadful this must have been for everyone caught up in it, especially the children. Occasionally friends die in the shelling. Her family are out of contact with other family and friends and have no idea if they are safe - her grandparents live just on the other side of a bridge, but people are regularly killed by sniper fire on the bridge. Then there is the lack of electricity, gas, water, proper schooling. No new clothes as she grows. Shoes seem to be a big problem too.
The irony is that it is the diary that eventually gets her out of Sarajevo. Someone is looking to publish the war diary of a child, and hers is chosen, which ultimately leads her and her immediate family to safety in Paris.
This book is, I am guessing, edited. But it leaves you with a genuine feel for what is like on the ground if you are an 11-year-old and everything around you is being destroyed. It’s thought-provoking, harrowing and definitely worth a read.
It’s scary to read. I kept a diary at about the same time, and the initial entries (before the war really comes it the city) read just like the kind of things I would have written, complete with short sentences and one word comments.
As the conflict escalates you just realise how dreadful this must have been for everyone caught up in it, especially the children. Occasionally friends die in the shelling. Her family are out of contact with other family and friends and have no idea if they are safe - her grandparents live just on the other side of a bridge, but people are regularly killed by sniper fire on the bridge. Then there is the lack of electricity, gas, water, proper schooling. No new clothes as she grows. Shoes seem to be a big problem too.
The irony is that it is the diary that eventually gets her out of Sarajevo. Someone is looking to publish the war diary of a child, and hers is chosen, which ultimately leads her and her immediate family to safety in Paris.
This book is, I am guessing, edited. But it leaves you with a genuine feel for what is like on the ground if you are an 11-year-old and everything around you is being destroyed. It’s thought-provoking, harrowing and definitely worth a read.
tony_t's review against another edition
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.25
"Zlata's Diary" by Zlata Filipovic is two years worth of entries in the diary of an eleven-year-old Sarajevo girl during the war there (1991-1993). I think the comparison to Anne Frank does both young ladies a disservice. Zlata faces many horrific situations during the war but she also receives letters from friends, food packages, and visits from world media when her diary is selected for publication. Plus Zlata survived. The diary yo-yos between mundane everyday activities and the horrors of war like watching her mother run across the bridge to get to work and trying to avoid becoming the target of snipers.