A review by ftrebelo
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Mirjam Pressler, Anne Frank, Otto H. Frank

4.0

It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I’ll be able to realize them!

I somehow hadn't read this before, and while I don't know what I was expecting exactly, this wasn't it. I was surprised to find a diary full of all the normal teenage growing pains: fights with her mother, feeling misunderstood, budding romances (half-dreamed up), homework (seriously, homework), and a lot (really a lot) about food. Particularly in the first half of the diary it was almost easy to forget the dramatic circumstances amid all the descriptions of their daily life. What struck me most was how you could see Anne growing up (in a very self-conscious way at times) as well as her insistence in finding hope amid the increasingly dire circumstances.