Zlata's Diary is a book about a young girl's life during a war in Sarajevo. As
the book begins, Zlata Filipovic is a normal little girl going to school and
having fun. She has lots of friends, does well in school, has a wonderful family
life, and is as happy as any little girl could want to be. Slowly, throughout
the book, things start to get worse. She starts out talking about her grades and
how happy she had been with school, and how the biggest of her worries is that
she is sick on her birthday. Then she moves on to talk about the war in
Dunbrovnik and how she is praying for them. Slowly, the war starts to move to
Sarajevo. The book goes from, "I am tired, but happy," to, "My
life is one of no electricity, no water, no gas, no school which isn't school,
rice, macaroni, a bit of green beans from Meleca's garden, the occasional
sweets, my piano, and of course you, Mimmy." I really enjoyed the begining
of the book, but I felt that after awhile it was the same thing over, and over
again. For example, June 23, "The electricity went out at eight o'clock
last night." July 7, "There was no water yesterday, or the day befor,
or the day befor that."She goes on to say the same thing repetitivly only
days later and throughout the whole book. I think the book would have been
better for younger kids. I think kids that were more around Zlata's age could
have related to her better. I was also dissapointed about the emotion she had,
To explain that she was sad she would simply say, "Boo-Hoo." Her
friends would die ir her family members would leave and that was the only
emotion she would express. She didn't really write how she felt in a way we
could relate to. I think, if she would have had more emotion, and also not so
much repetitive writing, we could have understood her better and I believe I
would have enjoyed the book more.