Biography Review: The Diary of A Young Girl

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Title: The Diary of a Young Girl
Author: Anne Frank
Genre: Biography
Illustrator: Not Available
Publisher: Bantam; Reissue edition (June 1, 1993)
Copyright Date: 1947
Pages: 304
Awards: YALSA Best Books For Young Adult

Summary: Anne Frank is given a diary on her thirteenth birthday and this is where the story begins. She is a young Jewish girl who has to go into hiding during World War II, along with her family members. A total of eight individuals hide in the secret annex where they have to be extremely quiet so that they will not be overheard. Emotions and fear plague all of the members in the house as they hide from the Nazis. Anne is a very opinionated and documents what happens in the secret annex to her diary named kitty. For over two years the individuals are all in hiding until they are discovered and deported to concentration camps.

Educational Purpose: I would use this book with a Holocaust unit. I would assign three books, and this would be one of the choices. The reading groups would be split by Lexile level. The Diary of a Young Girl would be for the higher leveled reading group. While reading this book students would need to answer questions from a comprehension packet about the novel.  I would also allow students to watch the movie after. Another way that I would use this book would be with a read aloud. While reading we would have class discussions about the content in the novel, and the students would answer quiz questions. At the end of the book, I would show the Diary of Anne Frank movie to the students.

Grade Level: (Sixth-Eleventh Grade) This book has no illustrations, and is a longer chapter book. There are complex vocabulary words that are introduced and abstract ideas that will challenge the reader. The intended purpose is to expand the readers knowledge and reading skills. Because this subject content can be sensitive the teacher needs to make sure they are using age appropriate examples. Lexile 1080L.

Ratings: 

					Comments
Plot	Excellent plot that is clever and has many surprising twists.	Good plot that has some surprises.	This is an okay plot that is kinda interesting.	Loose plot with many holes, and fails to grab the reader’s attention.	This is a very engaging text, and keeps the reader interested in what is going to happen next.
Character	Excellent characterization. The characters are complex and provide a strong emotional impact on the reader.	The characters are believable and the reader can relate to them, and feel an emotional tie to the characters.	The characters are lacking but likable. There is some emotional attachment to the characters.	The characters are poorly described, and leave the reader feeling detached from the book.	The characters are very complex and you feel an emotional connection to them, especially Anne Frank. You also feel like you are one of the individuals living in the secret annex at times.
Illustration	Excellent illustrations. Very detailed, creative, and connected to the book.	Illustrations were good and showed something important about the book.	The illustrations were okay, they were not very creative.	There was no illustrations, or they were not interesting.	There are no illustrations available.
Recommendation	Excellent book that I highly recommend having in your classroom or library. This book will captivate, enchant, fascinate, and basically make you obsess about it.	Good book that I recommend having in your classroom or library. The book was interesting and kept my interest and was overall very engaging.	This book was okay. I believe this would be a book to check out from the library if you're feeling bored.	This book was awful and I cannot recommend it for your classroom or library. This book will leave you wishing you could rewind time so you don’t read it.	I highly recommend this book. I read this in elementary school and vividly remember it.I believe that this is a great resource for the classroom and can be integrated with a history lesson.