Zlata`s Diary Essay, Research Paper

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.