Reader's Journal-Non-fiction

#8                                                     Reader’s Journal                                             10/17/11

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            I have just finished 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 that is full of facts on an account of a person’s life, written by another person.

There were many passages that were in my interest while reading this book. The passage I chose out of the many was located on the last chapter of the book. It included a quote that Anne specifically said in her diary.

“There’s in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rage” The Nazis and their silent helpers could take Anne’s life from her but not her voice. “I know what I want, I have a goal, have an opinion, have a religion and love... If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done, I shall not remain insignificant, I shall work in the world for mankind”. In the end, the Nazi terror could not silence Anne’s voice, which still rings out for all of us, whom she had hoped so ardently to serve.”

I chose this quote because I really wanted to show how good the author wrote in detail, and that when reading this quote you can really feel the situations that innocent people had to face. Anne was one of those innocent people and you can see that after being in the holocaust, all she hoped for was to live and to make a difference by creating a goal. The quote is significant to the book because it gives so much meaning to both the book and Anne Frank. This quote really showed how courageous Anne was, even after having such a sad life while living in the secret annex and being captured for so long.

            There were many strategies I used before, during, and after reading this book. Before reading, I predicted what might happen next in the book, since I last read. Also, I asked myself questions so that I would be excited to read and find the answers. While reading, I gathered information and experiences on what I already knew about the topic to make it easier to understand what was happening in the book. Also, I tried evaluating the questions I asked myself before I began reading. After reading, I read the sticky notes I wrote for the last readers journal to see what literary elements might have been changed or been added to at the end of the book. Also, I wrote my readers journal and compare and contrasted the book with what I already knew about Anne Frank to the facts written in the text.

           

None of the literary elements have been changed throughout the book. The topic is Anne Frank and 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 chose 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 reader’s attentions. Also, by having this title, it would make it easier for the reader to understand the main idea of 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 description of the book, taking place in the time of the holocaust. All details were factual because they were stated in the book, being true. The essential message was that Anne Frank was a really important, Jewish, young girl that spent her life hiding in a secret annex for a large amount of the holocaust and ended up becoming one of the most known and most significant people in history.

            The pattern of organization is chronological order because the events occurred in the order in which they happen. The author’s purpose is to inform the reader on facts that are based on another person’s 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 Anne says in this book, the point of view is still written in 2^nd person because the narrator overall is telling the story.

            I can still 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 other 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 her family living with her 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 get killed, which is what really ended up happening! 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.

Even though this book was “just right” for me, I still found a way to identify many vocabulary words that I didn’t know before. For example, the word dutifully, meaning to be obedient was identified by using context clue number five. Also, the word diminished, meaning to be less valuable was also found with context clue number five. The word console is when you comfort someone that is in a state of being disappointed or sad. Unlike the other words, I used context clue number four to understand the definition. Another word I found using context clue number four was with the word arrogantly, meaning exaggeration of when you describe someone’s importance. Finally, the word inchoate, which means to just begin something, was also found by using context clue number five. There was no figurative language written in this book because it is a biography.

While reading this book, I was able to make the same connections as I did before. 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, Jewish, 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 an amazing book and was defiantly worth reading! I used many sources of information like my prior knowledge to help me understand and really connect with this book. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone because it really opens your mind and heart on other peoples lives and makes you believe on how lucky you are to not have been in the situations Anne was in during her lifetime. I rate the book a 10-10 because it was extremely informational and kept me hooked! I was interested in reading it the whole time!

Love,

Joelle Ben-Nissan