The Diary of Anne Frank

For my fourth post I decided to do the book: The Diary of Anne Frank. The diary of Anne Frank follows the story a girl who was in hiding during the Holocaust. This book is for older children, I read this book in the seventh grade. This book is not happy, but it depicts the true story of a girl who lived in a horrible time. I think all students need to read this book, so we will not forget this strong girl.             

This books starts out by explaining how they had to go into hiding, and how her family lived in the attic of a local store. Anne lives in this attic for about two years. During these two years, Anne Frank really grows up. Inside her little attic, she can only read the books that are there, and be silent. During the day they have to be incredibly quiet so that no one hears them. During this time, Anne starts to have feelings for Peter. Peter is another boy who is being hidden with her family and is two years older than her. Peter becomes a friend for Anne and someone she can talk to during their time in hiding. As the war begins to end, Anne starts to feel very alone. She believes that her family would have been better off at a concentration camp. Unfortunately, this is where the diary ends. A few days later the attic is raided and everyone who was in hiding is sent to a concentration camp. Anne’s father was the only person who survived.  This book belongs in the genre of biography. Anne’s story was real and the diary was written by her. All of the events that occurred in her diary were real and true.  Anne’s story does not have a happy ending, but it was her life. The pictures that are included in this book are also real pictures of Anne and her family. This story can be seen as very inspiring because Anne Frank was such a strong girl. Most biographies give readers the sense of hope, and this diary is no different. A famous quote from Anne Frank is "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart." I think that this quote really explains the kind of person Anne was. She was in this horrible situation with war right outside her window. All of her people were being killed because of their religion, just because they were different, and yet she still believes people are good at heart. I believe that this should be the message of the entire book. I believe that if Anne had survived she would have been a bright light in our world. Even though she is gone, her diary lives on to inspire others.           

 The first project that I would have go along with this story is to have my students write a reflection paper about the story. Since the students reading this are a little older, this type of project would be appropriate. In this reflection paper I would have the students write about how they felt about the diary, and how they would feel if this happened to them. The next project I would have my students to is to write their own diaries. I would ask the students to pretend they were with Anne Frank in the attic.  In this project,  the students would kind of be placing themselves in the diary of Anne Frank.

Frank, Anne, and B. M. Doubleday. Anne Frank: the diary of a young girl. New York: Washington Square Press :, 1972. Print.