Book Review: Anne Frank - The Diary Of A Young Girl | With An Introduction By Eleanor Roosevelt

I borrowed this from my niece. She bought this book because her school required them to read it for their literature work. I'm already familiar with this book, before i borrowed it from her. The book was banned from some countries due to racial criticism and sexual content. I got curious and good thing my niece had this book and no longer need to spill money from my wallet to buy it myself.

---

Book Details:

Title: The Diary of a Young Girl (Dutch: Het Achterhuis)
Sub Title: With An Introduction By Eleanor Roosevelt
Author: Anne Frank
Original Language: Dutch
Translated to: English
Translated by: B. M. Mooyaart
Preface: Eleanor Roosevelt
Format: Paperback
Page: 283
Published: June 01, 1993
Publisher: Bantam Books
Original Year of Publication: 1947
Awards: Luisterboek Award (2008)
Genre: Autobiography, History, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9780553296983

Local Store: National Bookstore, Philippines
Local Price: 265.00 php.




People Associated with Anne Frank:

Familiarize with the list of people below as the edition of this book (if you had the same), has no annotation about them.

• Anne Frank - the author itself.
• Kitty - Some of Anne's writing is addressed to Kitty. It could be her imaginary friend or referring to her pre-war friend Kitty Egyedi.
• Otto Frank - Anne Frank's father. Also know as "Pim".
• Margot Frank - Anne Frank's older sister
• Mrs. van Daan - real name is Auguste van Pels.
• Mr. van Daan - real name is Hermann van Pels.
• Peter van Daan - Peter van Pels. Son of the van Daans.
• Note: Anne mentioned Pels in some of her letters, van Pels are the van Daans
• Mr. Dussel - Albert Dussel, the dentist. His real name is Fritz Pfeffer.
• More people associated with Anne Frank, see SparkNotes' Character List of "Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank"

I think, why Anne Frank change some of the associate's name in her diary is because in case if they found out, she can defend herself that they could not be them. Or, for security purposes in case the Gestapo investigated her diary.

Setting: Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Before you read the book, you may want to study the timeline here first - > http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Timeline/#!/en/Subsites/Timeline/ . This won't spoil your reading. It's for your comprehension purposes. A further understanding of World War times.

---

Back Cover of Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl

Photos of the Secret Annex

This book is diary written by Anne Frank during the World War II. Her diary tells the accounts of living and hiding from the German forces during the said war. A very good history book. A subject in history that should be read and studied.

It's a great privilege for me to read this diary. You know, diary are supposed to be a private book but Anne's dad, Otto Frank, decided to publicized the diary in commemoration of her daughter and it tells us what is it living like a rat hiding from a cat.

I admire the Frank family on how they care for their daughters. Aside to one of their daughter Margot who is intelligent, Anne, at her age of 13 - 14 years, she writes well and very open (of course, It's a diary). Perhaps, If you have a daughter or a son, you should consider reading this book. Reading Anne Frank's diary will let you know how they grow up in their adolescence years. You'll learn to know how they feel at their perspective. This book could be a reflection of yourself from your adolescence years.

Reading this book may need an accompanying references as you may be left thinking on some people who were suddenly mentioned in her diary. They are not introduced as expected because you're reading a diary (no annotation in this edition / publication; see People Associated with Anne Frank and the timeline link above).

My rating for this would be: 4.0 / 5.0

4.0 because this is not the definitive edition of the book. This edition by Bantam Books is very compact. They've removed the controversial sexual content as I've mentioned in this post and reference photos are shown in the first to couple of pages. But still, It's still worth reading without them. I can give this a perfect 5.0 if i had the definitive one.


Trivia:

• Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century - The Diary of a Young Girl at 19th spot
• banned in 2010 in Culpeper County, Virginia and in 2013, Northville, Michigan because of one of the passage about Anne's sexual exploration (see article about it at the ff. link).
• the book sold approximately 30 million copies worldwide (see reference here).

Otakore Literantadodist
Literataknolohitura.com
December 06, 2014

---

Reference:

• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl
• The Diary of a Young Girl details from GoodReads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48855.The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl
• The Diary of a Young Girl details from Anobii - http://www.anobii.com/books/Anne_Frank/9780553296983/003abd04cf8633f7fb
• List of People Associated with Anne Frank wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_associated_with_Anne_Frank
• List of books banned by Governements wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments

---

Planning to read this book too? I recommend to buy the revised critical edition instead (see product link below):

The above product has complete writings of Anne Frank and five more recently discovered works by her. Moreover, It's hardbound and the said controversial passage I'm talking bout here, I believe, Is included in the edition.