RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I liked this book when I first read it in fourth grade or so. Rereading it in my later teens, it had the same message but I noticed it had a lot more to offer than the copy.
I'll start with my impressions when I was young. First of all, this book really stuck with me. It is not a dry history of the Holocaust, it is the real life experience of a girl to whom I can relate. Her perspective is not historical. How can it be? She is an adolescent, not a historian. She sees world issues as they pertain to her and the people she is forced to hide with. This 13 year old perspective makes the book more easily understood by young readers. Children are not ready to read about the full horror of war and genocide. However, the perspective of a young girl reveals the existence and wrongness of these things without going into graphic detail about concentration camps and ghettos.
When I got older, the book took on some new meanings for me. First of all, I noticed the writing style was certainly that of a young girl. The style is immature but not difficult to read. It is apparent that Ann is educated and intelligent. Molfan stated that she was observant. I think that the observations she makes about human nature are beyond her years. They stem from the fact that she lived in a confined space for 25 months without many creative outlets except thinking and writing. German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, wrote "I have often felt a bitter sorrow at the thought of the German people, which is so estimable in the individual and so wretched in the generality." In reading Anne Frank's Diary, you can see that she has very much the same opinion. She writes about the inherent goodness of individuals while decrying the state of German affairs. It is obvious that she has at least a limited understanding of fear and scapegoating as weapons of war. The last thing that really made this diary stick out when reading from an older perspective was the ending. It is very abrupt. The entry before the discovery is a normal one. The morning of August 4th, 1944, the Grüne Polizei storms the secret annex and deports the occupants. It is sudden and unexpected, just like the actual event. The diary has no concluding point or grand finale. It just stops, kind of like Anne's life, which ends a few months later in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp.

what a great book for young people to read in school. It teaches so much about the horrors of the Holocaust and what some had to do to survive.Anne went into hiding right after her 13th birthday and was there for over two years. Her diary describes what like was like in those two years. she was a good writer for a young teenager.I have read that her diary is one of the most read books in the world. How sad that this did not have a happy ending. it would have been so interesting if Anne had lived what she may have done with her life. it was so evident that she was a smart observant girl. bet she could have been something.

It was saddening but enjoyable. Shame she was only thirteen. The book is in my school library. I've read it and I want to read it again. Very touching and moving, that's why I enjoyed it. I enjoy reading books that are saddening,tragic,emotional and moving.

it was very touching. It provided me with information I would have never learned in any of my classes. It provided me with the information of our world's evils.

This book was very moving for me. It showed a side not many people thought of. A lot of times it's hard to associate with what happened during this horrible time. This book makes you realize the human side of it. Another book that is good to read similar to this but a more in-depth read of what it was like inside the concentration camp is The Hiding Place by and about Corry ten-Boom. About a Christian woman who tried to help the Jewish people by hiding them in her house and got taken away to a camp. Amazing, the strength of faith and hope.

If you are looking for something that has to do with psychology, or strong charcters, this book is good for you, but if you are looking for stories on the Holocaust, I would consider Anne Frank a very minor example. Sometimes we all think of what happened to Anne was so horrible but the prosecution of Jews were not the only terrible event to world war II. There are so many other documents that talk about their owners experiences in the war which are a lot more graphic and heart jerking, and really have to do with the war. While Anne was trapped in the attic, she really only knew a portion about what the heck was going on, and she just wrote about the woes that went on the attic. I dont really understand when teachers try to teach about World War II why they show Anne Franks diary. To kids all it shows is: Wow, I wouldnt want to be trapped up in an attic for 2-3 years. And thats about it. What happened afterwards was very sad but it written down so people cant really know the true horror of what happened to her and other Jews. So if you are looking for a personal document of someone who experienced World War II and wrote down about it, I would suggest something someone wrote at the siege of Leningrad, or maybe an account of someone that survived the camps, there are so many horrors to what happened in World War II, but I dont think Annes was really the most effective.

I just saw Frigclown's comment and I was highly disturbed. Anne Frank was a traitor? Why do you think that? She was a little girl who got killed under a despotic regime run by a dictator.

Read the book;forget the play. That way you get the real Anne Frank and avoid Lillian Hellman's editing.

This book is more important for what it is than how well it is written. As to the latter, it is written about as well as you would expect, considering the author is an adolescent, living in fear that she barely understands while dealing with the trauma of turning into an adult. If you read it expecting good writing, you will be disappointed. If you read it for an understanding of what it means in a historical perspective, you will be entranced. Chilled, but entranced.

Oh, Please! She was a totally spoiled brat! A traitor to Germany!

It wasn't that interesting of a read...

"The greatest document about the 2nd World War" is the way that the Diary of Anne Frank is called, and I agree with this. This book is truly moving and several times I stopped reading because the story brought me to tears.

This really does bring to life what it was like for the Jews during the holocaust as its a personal account. You really do feel like you are there with Anne and feeling what she does. Its more heartbreaking because she was a bright, sweet and innocent little girl who had the rest of her life infront of her. This book should stay on the reading list for school children as it is very educating and shows the strength of human spirit.

The world famous diary of the 13 year old Jewish girl forced into hiding with her family and 4 others in the sealed-off backroom of an Amsterdam building,before her tragic discovery and death at Belsen.An absolutely essential read:not just for its still totally relevant messages about hatred and intolerance, and its remarkable insights into conflicting teenage emotions in such desperately strained circumstances,but above all because it happens to be one of the most absorbing and terribly moving testaments ever written.

This is ar really, really moving tale. Anne keeps her spirits up for the most part during one of the most tumultuous time in the history of the world. She is in seclusion, but, as her father found in her diary, says that despite all of this, she still thinks there's good inside all of us. It was tragic that she died in a concentration camp after being captured.

This book was absolutely thrilling. When I read this book, I really enjoyed it. In fact, this was one of the greatest but most tragic books I've ever read.

This book is an all-time classic---represents the height of hope in the chasm of totalitarianism and despair. Anne was a courageous young lady who put her thoughts on paper and dared to do so even though danger was omnipresent. She somehow knew she would probably not live to see the end of the war, and her father, Otto, is deserving of even greater praise and courage when he was able to find and ultimately publish his daughter's diary after the Nazis had destroyed the house in which the Frank family was hidden. A must-read for everyone who values the sanctity of life and the indomitable human spirit.

This is one of the most moving books I have ever or will ever read. I'm very glad it was included on the required reading list when I was a junior high school student and I hope that it will always be read by future generations. Anne herself was also a young teenager when she went through her ordeal so, reading this book at that age really helps the reader identify with the many confusing feelings, thoughts and fears she was experiencing. In a more personal way than any history book or documentary could do, Anne Frank's diary gives a very innocent and honest first hand account of life in a world gone mad with hate. She was like a sweet little flower trying so hard to bloom in a pile of ashes. And, though all seemed lost, her wonderful loving spirit was not crushed and is triumphant over that awful hate in a very real way. The fact that this little plaid diary survived for all of us to read is truly a miracle.