Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

A beloved classic since its initial publication in 1947, this vivid, insightful journal is a fitting memorial to the gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. Born in 1929, Anne Frank received a blank diary on her 13th birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Her marvelously detailed, engagingly personal entries chronicle 25 trying months of claustrophobic, quarrelsome intimacy with her parents, sister, a second family, and a middle-aged dentist who has little tolerance for Anne's vivacity. The diary's universal appeal stems from its riveting blend of the grubby particulars of life during wartime (scant, bad food; shabby, outgrown clothes that can't be replaced; constant fear of discovery) and candid discussion of emotions familiar to every adolescent (everyone criticizes me, no one sees my real nature, when will I be loved?). Yet Frank was no ordinary teen: the later entries reveal a sense of compassion and a spiritual depth remarkable in a girl barely 15. Her death epitomizes the madness of the Holocaust, but for the millions who meet Anne through her diary, it is also a very individual loss. --Wendy Smith

• ANNE FRANK THE UNTOLD STORY: The hidden truth about Elli Vossen, the youngest helper of the Secret Annex
• Who Was Anne Frank?
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
• Night (Night)
• Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation (Pantheon Graphic Library)
• Diary of Anne Frank, The 50th Anniversary Edition
• Number the Stars
• The Diary of Anne Frank (Abridged for young readers)
• The Assault
• Four Perfect Pebbles: A True Story of the Holocaust