Reader's Journal-Non-fiction

#7                                                     Reader’s Journal                                             10/11/11

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            For this past week, I’ve been reading the book ANNE FRANK: The Biography by Melissa Muller. The genre of this book is clearly a biography. A biography is a subgenre, in the category of non-fiction; it is a book based on an account on a person’s life, written by another person. Since this book is nearly five hundred pages long, I’m only in the beginning and have not finished reading it yet…

There were many passages that were in my interest while reading this book. The passage I chose out of the many was located in the first chapter of the book and was honestly most touching, in my opinion.

“Hush. Be quiet. Whisper. Walk softly...take off your shoes. Who's still in the bathroom? The water's running. For God's sake, don't flush the toilet! After two years you should know better than to be so careless. Empty the chamber pots. Shove the beds back out of the way. The church bells are already ringing the half hour. When the workers arrive at 8:30, there has to be dead silence.”

I chose this quote because it starts the book off with a great choice of words that showed me a well-written description on how Anne and her family lived life in the time of the holocaust. It has significance to the book because it gives a good idea of what the entire book would focus on. Also, by reading this, you can tell that this book is written in great description, that uses vivid verbs and adjectives.

            There were many strategies I used before, during, and after reading this book. Before reading, I skim and scanned, looking and thinking about the title, and illustrations on the front covers of the book. I noticed that the book was going to be about Anne Frank and that the book was a biography, by reading the title. Also, I gathered my background knowledge on what I already knew about the topic, Anne Frank. While reading, I took in the new information I learned and compare and contrasted it with what I already know. Also, I wrote all the important on a sticky note so that it would make it easier to track down all the literary elements when its time to write my readers journal. After reading, I predicted what would happen later on in the book. I predicted that Anne would still continue to be hidden, and safely not found. Also, I critiqued the book to write my readers journal.

            The topic of the book is Anne Frank. The main idea is on Anne’s life story during the Holocaust in the secret annex and out. The main idea is implied because it is not clearly stated in the text. If I were to give this book another title, it would be “The Life of Anne Frank, a Story that should Never be Forgotten” I would name it this because I think it would catch many readers attentions. Also, the original title is very bland and should have a new title that would well describe the book. Three supporting details were the title because it mentioned the topic is on Anne Frank, the description of the secret annex and what she did while living in there for so long, and finally the indication of the book taking place in the time of the holocaust. All details were factual because they were stated in the book, to be true.

Sadly, I have not read far enough in the book to figure out the essential message.

            The pattern of organization is chronological order because the events take place in the order that they occur. The authors purpose is to inform the reader on facts that are based on another persons life (Anne Frank.) The authors perspective is objective and unbiased because Melissa does not have any opinions, she just states the facts about Anne’s life. Even though there are several quotes that people say in this book, the point of view is written in 2^nd person because the narrator is telling the story.

            I can compare and contrast Anne’s life to other Jewish people who were living in the time of the holocaust in many ways! To begin with, one thing they have in common is that both Anne and the Jewish people were most likely to be all in the same situation during the holocaust. They differ because other Jewish people did not hide in a secret annex like Anne did during this time. The cause and effect would be that if Anne and who ever lived with her in hiding in the secret annex made any noise while the soldiers were out searching, the effect on it would be that they would unfortunately get caught and maybe even get killed! The validity and accuracy I used was my background knowledge on what I already knew on Anne Frank.

There were many text features that I was able to locate while reading this book. For example, titles, quotations, chapter’s numbers, italicized, and bolded words were some features that easily caught my attention. To begin with, the italicized and bolded words allowed me to easily catch important words or points while I read. Also, the titles gave me an idea of what each chapter was about, along with the chapter number, which allowed me to track where I was in the book. The quotations helped me view things from the characters perspective and sense on what they had to say.

Obviously, since I am not so far into the book, I haven’t reached a point on finding any figurative language or any vocabulary words, even though this book was “just right” for me.

While reading this book, I was able to make many connections. For example, a text-to-self connection I was able to make was with Anne Frank and myself. The book states that Anne was a very strong, brave, smart and defendant young girl just like I am. A text-to-text connection I made was to Anne’s Diary and this book because this book mentions many events that Anne might have wrote in her personal diary. Finally, A text-to-world connection would be that Anne Frank was known as the "human face of the Holocaust.” This book really showed examples of how many similar and tragic lives others experienced during this important time in history and it can’t ever be forgotten.  

All in all, this was a great book! I used many sources of information like my prior knowledge to help me understand and read this book. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone because it really opens your mind and heart on other people’s lives and makes you believe on how lucky you are to not have been in the situations Anne was in during her life time. Even though I’m not finished reading the book yet, I rate it a 10-10 because it gave me a huge variety of new information and kept me hooked and interested in reading it the whole time! I am really looking forward into finish reading this book!

Love,

Joelle Ben-Nissan