Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo [Paperback]

Zlata Filipovic (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1994

Zlata Filipovic was given a diary shortly before her 10th birthday. An ordinary, if unusually intelligent and articulate little girl, her preoccupations include whether or not to join the Madonna Fan Club and the fate of the supermodels. But in Sarajevo, the war draws closer.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ten-year-old Croatian Filipovic's graphic, firsthand account of life in embattled Sarajevo was a nine-week PW bestseller. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-From September 1991 through October 1993, young Zlata Filipovic kept a diary. When she began it, she was 11 years old, concerned mostly with friends, school, piano lessons, MTV, and Madonna. As the diary ends, she has become used to constant bombing and snipers; severe shortages of food, water, and gas; and the end of a privileged adolescence in her native Sarajevo. Zlata has been described as the new Anne Frank. While the circumstances are somewhat similar, and Zlata is intelligent and observant, this diary lacks the compelling style and mature preceptions that gave Anne Frank's account such universality. The entire situation in the former Yugoslavia, however, is of such currency and concern that any first-person account, especially one such as this that speaks so directly to adolescents, is important and necessary. While not great literature, the narrative provides a vivid description of the ravages of war and its effect upon one young woman, and, as such, is valuable for today's YAs.
Susan H. Woodcock, King's Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590487922
• ISBN-13: 978-0590487924
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,020,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern-day Anne Frank, June 5, 2004

By 

Charles Sutherland (Indy, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zlata's Diary (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Reminds You, November 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Zlata's Diary (Mass Market Paperback)

This chilling book reminded me just how lucky I am. I forget and take it forgranted that I am so lucky and able to live wholeheartedly. I forget that in many places, children must suffer and abandon their childhood because of cold, angry war.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, May 25, 2007

By 

J. M. Simms (Nicosia, Cyprus) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo, Revised Edition (Paperback)

Sheesh...this is the product of a child, not the work of a Pulitzer prize winning journalist. It is an excellent diary, an excellent primary source and an excellent text for a better understanding of the Yugoslav wars. Yes...it does only tell one point of view - hers - it is her diary! Some readers are offended because of the comparison to Anne Frank; a comparison that Filipovic and others make in the book. The comparison is totally fair. Both are intelligent children caught up in situations they have no control over during wars of ethnic cleansing and extermination. It is a testament to Zlata that she can make the connection to Anne Frank...obviously the rest of the world couldn't. They (We) abandoned the Jews sixty years ago and abandoned hundreds of thousands of Croats/Bosniaks/Serbs to genocide forty years later. Zlata remembered Anne Frank's words...the world didn't.