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Summary: Zlata's Diary
Review: Zlata's Diary by, Zlata Filipovic is a tremendously exciting book. This book was defiantly a page-turner for two main reasons. First, the thoughts and feelings coming from this 11-year old girl is phenomenal. Second, her story starts out like any other and it is incredible to see how much her life is affected by a war. A girl having a near to perfect life, going through a war, then having her friends and family ripped apart. The reader thins they can predict how things are going to turn out, then all of the sudden, it all changes. I loved this book because of it's theme and I recommend this book to anybody who has the chance to read it!
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Summary: Modern-day Anne Frank
Review: Zlata's Diary is a masterpiece. A modern-day Diary of Anne Frank is what comes to mind when I think about this book. Zlata is a girl from Sarajevo, writing as only a child can write about terrors that only adults can inflict. From start to finish, this remarkable books keeps you hoping and praying, for Zlata and for her family and friends. Her diary begins before the war, with typical young-girl items like piano lessons and parties, but quickly becomes a nightmare of bombs and guns. She escapes to Paris, and looks back with sorrow. It is a truly moving text. Zlata writes as any girl would write, in the beginning. The early part of her diary (it begins in September 1991) deals with ideas about school starting and what happened last summer. Short entries into a girl's diary, not too deep, somewhat interesting but also very typical. She could be any girl in any city in this country. She talks about her friends, her favorite TV shows, her music lessons, and enjoying pizza. She is 11 years old. But in less than a year, all of that changes. She is writing letters and entries recounting horrible events of warfare. Less than a year after she was wondering about the top songs on MTV and her music and friends, she was writing profound letters of love, life and survival. She recounts hiding in dark, ugly cellars, and hearing bombs dropping, and being very afraid. She writes of her friend Nina who died in of shrapnel in the brain -- another 11 year old girl, just like Zlata. They went to kindergarten together, they played together. Now Nina was dead. Zlata and members of her family escaped to Paris by December 1993; the diary ends at that point. Zlata grew up tremendously, much as Anne Frank did, during those few years of the war. She learned the terminology and dangers of war as well as any professional soldier. She learned the horrors and deprivations. She also remained a little girl, with her childish, childlike hope for peace for all. She escaped, but how many didn't? Published in 1994 while there was still fighting in Sarajevo, this is a book of hope. And sadly the fighting hasn't stopped in that part of the world. Children have lost parents, siblings, family members, friends, and their whole way of life. It is for them that Zlata wrote her diary. We should remember them.
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Summary: Typical of a child.
Review: Zlata's Diary is a poorly written diary. It has no emotional insight only weak observations. It is repetitious. I would recommend Anne Frank. Unlike Zlata's Diary, Frank shares her all her feelings and fears. Zlata reveals no feeling only detailess observations. If you need an easy read this is your book. Frankly, I like a more difficult, insightful read.
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Summary: Propaganda
Review: Zlata's Diary is a shameless propaganda ploy. Zlata Filipovic went to live in a Paris villa shortly after the Bosnian civil war started. She lived in luxury and splendor. The real Ann Frank died at Auschwitz. Why is Frank's memory being abused by propagandists? Amazon.com itself noted that the Bosnian Government may have tampered with the book,i.e., organized the propaganda campaign. It is a cute idea! Pretend you are somebody else. It is a form of theft. It insults the memory of the real Ann Frank. If you love PROPAGANDA and being lied to and hoodwinked, you will love this book! There is a sucker born every minute! It ain't real. It is REAL propaganda though.Sorry, I can't recommend it.
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Summary: A window into war.
Review: Zlata's Diary is a very, very real book. It is about a girl who is in the middle of a war in Sarajevo. I would not suggest this to children, because it is not a 'fun' book to read but is very good and gives you a wonderful appreciation of a child's life in war. If you are looking for an autobiography, I would pick this one up.
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Summary: A window into war.
Review: Zlata's Diary is a very, very real book. It is about a girl who is in the middle of a war in Sarajevo. I would not suggest this to children, because it is not a 'fun' book to read but is very good and gives you a wonderful appreciation of a child's life in war. If you are looking for an autobiography, I would pick this one up.
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Summary: This book is a good overview of the war but lacks interest
Review: Zlata's diary is an inside view of the war in Sarajevo which began in 1991. Her book tells of just about everything she did from piano lessons to seeking shelter in her neighbors basement. It tells of her close encounters with death and how her family struggled through the war. She has an optomistic point of view, but you can tell that she is in fifth grade from her writing style. This book gives good details and keeps your attention but is kind of repetative. She talks a lot about stuff that won't interest you but she also talks a lot about war life and what sacrafices she had to make. It's an interesting way of looking at a war and the people that have to live through it.
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Summary: An honest overview of Zlata's book from some1 who was there!
Review: Zlata's diary is an overall so-so book. It does not have the literal quality, nor the originality of Anne Frank's diary, but it has something else very important: a clear picture of what was going on in Sarajevo during the beginning of the Bosnian war.(Remember, Zlata left in mid of 1993, there were two and a half more years that other Sarajevans spent in war...This book was a view of a girl, 11 years old, who saw the people that were her neighbors until yesterday go to the mountains around the city and shoot at her, her family and friends, and innocent many others she didn't know but she felt sad for...Zlata gives out a picture of what it was like to live under fire every day, where your every move could be your last, where you are not safe not in your home, nor deep underground in the shelter. It was a time of sadness for Sarajevo, which used to be one of Europe's most metropolitan cities. Zlata's diary serves not to spread propaganda and evoke sadness in the West and make sure it does something,this book is so the West can be ashamed of what it didn't do. It is a great reference for anyone who plans to write about, or visit Sarajevo.
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Summary: A point of veiw from a child
Review: Zlata's Diary is filled with hope, sadness, and tied together with bittersweatness. I couldn't find enough reading time to satisifie myself. I didn't want it to end. It's a book everyone should read.
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Summary: Another Anne Frank
Review: Zlata's Diary is very typical of many diary's that are being written today. I think that they need to stop making this type of books because Anne Frank was enough and all people will do is relate it to her life. Also throughout this book Zlata shows no emotion and she keeps repeating herself. When she found out that her diary was going to be published she totally changed her style of writing. She should have kept writing how she was and maybe the diary would have been more interesting to read.
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