Fictional Diary Research Articles

Refugee Chronicles: excerpt from the diary with an introduction

The following text is an excerpt from The Refugee Chronicles, a fictional diary written by Evgeny Shtorn, poet and activist, from his experience of seeking asylum. Shtorn had to flee Russia due to the government’s hostile policies toward both queer sexualities and political dissent right after he was interviewed by the Russian secret police FSB in 2018. The run for life and liberty brought him to the utmost end of Western Europe, Ireland. Shtorn’s experience of claiming asylum made him question clear cut boundaries between the West and the East along the lines of guarantees and protections of human rights. He also noted how queer sexuality plays a specific role in the asylum application process as a protected and even desired ground for granting refugee status. His experience of a lengthy stay in the dormitory for asylum seekers converted into a book-length, semi-fictional chronicle was published by an independent press, Poryadok Slov, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The book is full of queries, ambiguities, and doubts that surround the issues of queerness, migration, and the politics of human rights. The following chapter is introduced with a short pre-word by a scholar of sexuality studies Alexander Kondakov who offers a brief contextualization and conceptualization of The Refugee Chronicles.

FICTIONAL DIARY AS A FORM OF VERBALIZING THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF THE CHARACTER (BASED ON THE NOVEL BY D. SMITH “I CAPTURE THE CASTLE”)

Aim. To identify the linguo-stylistic and lexical-semantic features of verbalizing the characters’ emotions typical for the fictional diary genre.Methodology. The study was conducted using the methods of linguo-stylistic interpretation and lexical-semantic analysis of the text, using the methods of continuous sampling, categorization and classification, as well as descriptive and statistical methods.Results. The study revealed that the predominant ways of verbalizing the emotions of a character in fictional diaries are implicit. The analysis showed the prevalence of elements with a negative emotive connotation. Among the stylistic means of verbalization of emotions a significant part belongs to lexical expressive means.Research implications. The research results contribute to the deeper understanding of the genre of fictional diary and the verbal representation of emotions in characters’ speech. It is possible to apply the results obtained in teaching stylistics, text interpretation and discourse theory.

Public and Private Diaries

Abstract This article analyzes a number of Egyptian blogs in relation to their print ancestors, in particular private notebooks written by young effendis in the 1920s and public fictional diaries serialized in the periodical press in the same period in Egypt. It compares the media transition taking place in Egypt in the early 2000s following the adoption of blogging and social media to the one occurring in the early decades of the twentieth century following the popularization of printed products. Using theories from media studies and rhetorical studies, it shows how the blog inherits some of the formal and stylistic features of private diaries as well as their anti-authoritarian attitude. Yet it also shows how compared to its ancestors, the blog favors an unprecedented exposure of personal, private issues in public, turning self-writing into a social, communicative activity. Similarly, autofiction and subversive styles of writing are techniques that bloggers borrow from the fictional print diaries in order to write about their private lives in public. However, digital tools, with their mode of circulation, temporality and increasing exposure to state and informal censorship, make it increasingly difficult for bloggers to keep a room of their own.

Escritura y subjetivación: configuración de la identidad en El libro vacío de Josefina Vicens

The narrator’s subjectivation process is analyzed in El libro vacío by Josefina Vicens. Throughout the notes of the fictional diary that make up the novel, the modeling of the writing that José García sets in motion is followed from the dilemma of the writer called and that same time prevented from carrying out his work, especially, as long as it is configured in parallel the identity of the subject who writes. From the subjective turn and beyond the individual’s fading that has been noticed under an existentialist reading of the work, it is proposed to address the configuration of identity that is implicit in writing as a way of structuring one’s life.

Divided by Flesh and Pen: Teaching Medieval Manuscripts Through Virginia Woolf

Despite the complexity of her written work, Virginia Woolf occasionally sought to “teach” the reader, as Sheila Heti’s new edition of How Should One Read A Book? reveals. Moreover, Woolf was keenly interested in the Middle Ages. This essay uses an unpublished story of Woolf’s to explore new possibilities in the teaching of medieval English literature. A syllabus, outlined at the center of this essay, details assignments that invite students to read and write across genres, disciplines, and time periods, taking up Woolf’s notion of what this author calls the “mystical manuscript,” or the text that comes alive in the mind. Through the fictional diary of Joan Martyn, Woolf explores the limits of the archive when it comes to access and representation. She guides both instructor and student through vivid scenes of public reading and domestic storytelling, suggesting that the keepers of manuscripts are often located far from the locked library.

Stuggle for Air...an Epilogue to Suffering. [Excerpt From a Found Audiovisual Diary

Struggle for air … an epilogue to suffering is an audio essay that documents the imagined agony of a with Covid-19 patient, a man who is an artist with an academic scientific background in biology. It is conceptualised and written as an excerpt from a fictional personal diary, with a soundscape as a creative extension. At the time of his supposed suffering, the man questions and tries to foresee the future of the Homo sapiens as a species, after the appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic during a period of very critical conditions that concern humanity. The essay is, in fact, an examination of the human brain plasticity in relation to current major issues that the society faces; of the ways in which the contagion impacted human existence and activity; and of the avenues through which art may act as inspiration for science and vice versa. It argues that, in order to survive, humankind surpasses natural selection and enables an artificial one, by vitally connecting the human body with artificial parts. Science fiction becomes applied and leads to transhumanism. Thus, in an era where dehumanisation has become the norm, the inhuman assumes an even more significant place in contemporary society. The essay comes to a close by questioning the moral issues that arise from the transition from the human to the posthuman concept of existence, indicating that its repercussions are only just starting to be felt.

Interpretation of Heart Rate Variability: The Art of Looking Through a Keyhole.

The heart may be a mirror of the soul, but the human mind is more than its heart rate variability (HRV). Many techniques to quantify HRV promise to give a view of what is going on in the body or even the psyche of the subject under study. This “Hypothesis” paper gives, on the one hand, a critical view on the field of HRV-analysis and, on the other hand, points out a possible direction of future applications. In view of the inherent variability of HRV and the underlying processes, as lined out here, the best use may be found in serial analysis in a subject/patient, to find changes over time that may help in early discovery of developing pathology. Not every future possibility is bright and shining, though, as demonstrated in a fictional diary excerpt from a future subject, living in a society geared toward preventive medicine. Here implanted biochips watch over the health of the population and artificial intelligence (AI) analyses the massive data flow to support the diagnostic process.

Genre, History, and the Stolen Generations: Three Australian Stories

This article explores the role that genre plays in fictional depictions of the Stolen Generations (Australian Indigenous children removed from their homes) in three twenty-first-century Australian middle-grade novels: Who Am I?: The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 by Anita Heiss (2001) ; The Poppy Stories: Four Books in One by Gabrielle Wang (2016) ; and Sister Heart by Sally Morgan (2016) . It argues that the genres of fictional diary, adventure story and verse novel invite different reading practices and approaches to history, and shape the ways in which the texts depict, for children, the suffering and resilience of the Stolen Generations.

ENERVADAS, DE MME. CHRYSANTHÈME: UM SIMULACRO AUTOBIOGRÁFICO

Mme. Chrysanthème (1870-1948) foi presença recorrente nos periódicos das primeiras décadas do século XX, publicando inúmeras resenhas, crônicas e alguns de romances. Entretanto, caiu em completo esquecimento: eis o destino costumeiro das mulheres escritoras que contrariavam, em alguma medida, as expectativas do público masculino. Impulsionados pela recente reedição de Enervadas (2019), destrincharemos alguns dos traços inovadores de sua obra, dentre os quais a estrutura bipartida que nos conduz a um simulacro autobiográfico seguido por um diário ficcional. Trata-se de um livro em que a protagonista, Lúcia, transforma-se em uma obra de arte, performando uma existência artificiosa que subverterá as noções de gênero. Estamos diante, portanto, de um duplo movimento: um romance, ficcional por excelência, é também ficcionalizado pela sua narradora. O corpo de Lúcia é um quadro e suas atitudes são sempre calculadas para atingir determinado efeito. Este estudo, igualmente bipartido, pensando nos gêneros que a obra pretende simular, busca compreender as motivações de tão entediada personagem que age de acordo com os postulados pela burguesia para dela debochar. Pretendemos, ainda, demonstrar a modernidade que há em suas subversões, perfeitamente coerentes com o temperamento enervado da personagem.

Looking Behind and Looking Ahead: Personality Differences in Counterfactual and Prefactual Thinking

Counterfactual thinking (CFT) involves the mental simulation of alternatives to the past. In contrast, prefactual thinking (PFT) simulates potential outcomes that have yet to happen. Individuals differ in the extent to which they think in these ways, but we know little about how personality is implicated in these differences. This study investigated the relationship between Big Five personality traits and levels of spontaneous CFT and PFT embedded within a fictional diary entry. Results indicated that CFT was related to high neuroticism and low agreeableness, while PFT was related to low neuroticism and high agreeableness, as well as high extraversion. This suggests that CFT and PFT are, in part, dispositionally based and may be predicted by Big Five measures. This has implications for our understanding of individual differences in terms of the functionality of CFT and PFT and their potential influence on life outcomes.

O recurso ao diário em A Noite da Espera, de Milton Hatoum: o desenho de um conflito pessoal e de um conflito histórico-político

O presente artigo visa à análise do recente livro de Milton Hatoum, A Noite da Espera, publicado em 2017 e pertencente à trilogia O Lugar mais Sombrio. Tal análise procura identificar no romance, escrito em forma de diário ficcional, a potencialidade da escrita de si como espaço de autoconhecimento, de autorreflexão e de resistência diante da dupla crise vivida pelo narrador: uma crise de ordem familiar e outra de ordem histórico-política, representada pela ditadura civil-militar brasileira. Ademais, enxergam-se os vestígios e as ruínas como consequentes desse processo crítico, proporcionando entender o diário como a escrita mais pertinente nesse espaço-tempo caótico.

Part-time identities and full-time narration as an absolution in Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Belonging to a broad genre of Bildungsroman and a less broad literary form known as fictional diary, Sherman Alexie’s young-adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) explores the implications of self-narration in the context of a painful search for a more unified and solid identity within a fragmented and stereotype-troubled social and political framework. The focus of this paper, therefore, is not only the protagonist’s psychological duality, generally inherent to the genre itself, but also the transformative power of the particularly hybrid and culturally pluralistic narrative that, in this case, effectively combines Native American and Anglo-European traditions. Drawing on the basic features of diary as a form of intensely autobiographical writing, the paper aims at pointing to its multiple therapeutic forces, as well as to the phenomenological importance of self-expression in artistic, political, and existential terms, as the words are, once again, seen as an agent of a world’s transformation.

Diary of Fire by Elías Miguel Muñoz

Reviewed by: Diary of Fire by Elías Miguel Muñoz Isabel Álvarez-Borland Muñoz, Elías Miguel. Diary of Fire. New Jersey: Tincture Lethe, 2016. Pp. 333. ISBN 978-1-59021-580-7. In Elías Miguel Muñoz latest book, Diary of Fire (2016), the narrator’s moving reflections structure a fictional diary that explores sexuality, childhood trauma, and family relationships. At the center of the memoir is the narrator’s deep desire to understand himself. This self-search however is deeply intertwined by the abuse the narrator suffered as a child and by his broken relationship with his father. Muñoz was born in Cuba in 1954, and emigrated with his parents to the United States when he was fourteen years old. Like many of his Cuban American writer peers who came over during adolescence, his writing shares a sensibility based on the division or rupture with a childhood that took place in a different language and in another geography. A sense of unresolved contradictions colors most of Muñoz’s previous works, a body of work that spans several genres: novel, poetry and literary criticism. With greater urgency, and now from the perspective of a writer in his early sixties, Muñoz’s Diary of Fire (2016) returns to the issues of self-understanding and to the individual’s need and right for living an authentic life. Diary of Fire fluctuates between past and present and between Cuba and the United States keeping the trauma of displacement and discovery of sexuality as important centers of the memoir. In so doing its speaks of the narrator, Camilo Macías, breaking away from his father’s homophobia, the scars of child abuse, and Camilo’s coming to terms with his sexual identity. Several chapters titled “Cuba in Silence” return to Camilo Macías and the traumatic events of his Cuban childhood. It is precisely the reader’s experience of witnessing both the present and the past of the narrative that adds significance to what is being read and renders poignancy as well as pathos to the events related. The prominent scar in this fictional diary is the abuse Camilo suffered in Cuba as a seven year-old child by a family friend, Eduardo, a thirty year-old man who lived near his home and who had won the confidence of his unsuspecting parents. It is those scenes that deal with molestation that seem to torture the narrator as he fights to erase them from his mind: “Memories brought anguish; they made him confront the horrors of what was done to him. Yet he kept reliving them, writing about them. “I write because I remember the pain,” he said. “And it’s still with me” (118). In fact, it is the frustrating memory of the sexual abuse that remains deep in Camilo’s unconscious and often reappears as the narrator tries to grapple and analyze what [End Page 498] exactly happened to him as a child. Camilo describes sordid instances of this abuse in a distanced tone that at times contrasts vividly with the horror of what is being related. Camilo’s child voice also recalls with grief the homophobia of his father and his verbal and sometimes physical abuse for suspecting the sexual preferences of his son. As a child, his spirit was broken by a father’s brutality and lack of approval. The family fits the Cuban stereotype, the father exudes machismo, the mother is pictured as understanding but unable to stop the father’s behavior. As someone betrayed by his country, the father is deeply hurt by historical circumstance and refuses to have any positive interactions with those around him. Sad scenes are narrated about how the father forbids Camilo to develop his artistic interests and how the child was forbidden to have friends who were not macho enough for his father. When the family decides to leave the island of Cuba as exiles, a time of loneliness and resentment against his father grows inside the child’s heart. The past lurks close as the Cuban memories of sexual prejudice and physical violence keep returning to Camilo’s mind. The present of the narrative relates...

Review Article: The Wedding Gown Writes Back. Borgos, Anna. 2013. Nemek között: Nőtörténet, szexualitástörténet ('Between the Sexes: Women's History, Sexuality History'). Budapest: Noran Libro Kiadó. 317 pp.; and Lovas, Ildikó. 2008. Spanyol menyasszony (‘The Spanish Bride’). Bratislava/Pozsony: Kalligram Kiadó. 304 pp.

In Central Europe nowadays universities, research institutes or museums are attempting to reconfigure the region's complex history from the perspectives of formerly forgotten or marginal/ized individuals and groups. Besides initiatives such as the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, or of the Center for Queer Memory in Prague, new studies and literary works presently (re-)create narratives that challenge the generally accepted past. Two recently published Hungarian books, a novel and a study that partly deals with the novel, exemplify this revisionist tendency. Ildikó Lovas’ novel, Spanyol Menyasszony ['The Spanish Bride'] (2007), which questions the cult of Géza Csáth (1887-1919), the writer and psychoanalyst who was also a drug addict that murdered his wife, renders the fictional diary of Csáth's wife and victim, Olga Jonás (1884-1919); Anna Borgos’ study, Nemek között: Nőtörténet, szexualitástörténet ['Between the Sexes: Women’s History, Sexuality History'] (2013), examines the Csáth affair within an inclusive analysis of women’s positions, roles and sexuality in the Hungarian culture of the last century. In this article Chmurski traces the ways in which both authors reread the lives and tragic marriage of Csáth and Jonás.

On Labors of Love and Language Learning: Xiaolu Guo Rewriting the Monolingual Family Romance

This essay investigates how the Chinese-British author and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007) engages in the rewriting of what Yasemin Yildiz termed the “monolingual linguistic family romance” (2012). Written in a learner’s English, which improves throughout its fictional diary pages, the novel describes and enacts the labor of love that language learning always connotes, and thus questions the unique affective investment in the mother tongue. Xiaolu Guo’s decision to harness the very process of a protagonist’s self-translation as the focus of her first novel in English creates an experimental text that stages the inequity between her character’s slowly improving English and a perception of her unwritten dialect and official Mandarin Chinese as equally oppressive, between the hegemony of global English and the imposition of Mandarin Chinese as the language of her education, between Western capitalism and Chinese communism. Using Pascale Casanova’s insights into the unequal linguistic exchanges both in translation and the literary world, I argue that as it presents a writer’s alienation from either stepmother’s or lover’s tongue in literary endeavor, Dictionary for Lovers investigates and destabilizes both affective relationships in order to put in relief the asymmetry of globalized exchanges at their basis.

‘Io non so se questi miei poveri appunti […] cadranno mai sotto gli occhi di qualcuno’: Fictional Diaries in Nineteenth-Century Italian Women’s Writing

This article examines the literary form of the fictional diary in Italian women’s writing from the nineteenth century, focusing especially on the post-Unification period. Following an introduction to the fictional diary, which outlines historical and social considerations pertaining to the situation of Italian women in the Ottocento, touching also upon questions of genre, the article analyses the presence and functions of the fictional diary in two works: Ida Baccini’s Il romanzo d’una maestra (1901) and Tommasina Guidi’s Ho una casa mia! Ricordi di una giovane sposa (1879). The readings of these two texts demonstrate that the fictional diary has an invaluable contribution to make to our understanding of nineteenth-century Italian women’s writing, thanks to its thematic and formal points of convergence with other genres (most notably, with the novel and conduct literature). In particular, the hybrid genre of the fictional diary reveals the extent to which even ‘creative’ forms of writing may be coloured by an underlying prescriptive agenda.

Journal fictif, vie romancée, roman, mémoires, confession Le cas de Tine of de dalen waar het leven woont (1987) de Nelleke Noordervliet

The central theme of this contribution is the interaction between fiction and reality in Noordervliet’s novel about Multatuli’s wife. Speaking is Everdine van Wijnbergen during the last months of her life ; in a fictional diary she looks back on episodes out of her whole life, with or without Douwes Dekker at her side. This fictional (auto)biography of a historical person is also a confession, an introspection, a self-examination. In this novel three « Tines » appear side by side : the real Everdine, Multatuli’s and Max Havelaar’s idealized Tine, and Noordervliet’s Tine. Nelleke Noordervliet gives a voice to this writer’s wife ; she brings her out of the shadows and offers a nuanced and complex image of her personality.

The Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine: Friendship Over by Julie Sternberg (review)

Reviewed by: The Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine: Friendship Over by Julie Sternberg Deborah Stevenson Sternberg, Julie The Top-Secret Diary of Celie Valentine: Friendship Over; illus. by Johanna Wright. Boyds Mills, 2014 [160 p] ISBN 978-1-59078-993-3 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 2–4 For her tenth birthday, Celie receives from her loving father the gift of a punching bag (to take out her frustrations about her older sister, Jo) and a diary. Celie takes to the journal immediately, pouring out her grievances, pasting in assignments from her spy notebook, and sketching the events of her day. What’s she’s mostly concerned about, though, is her best friend Lulu’s sudden shunning, and the indications (gleaned largely from spying) that her beloved grandmother, living in the South, is starting to develop health problems. Sternberg (Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, BCCB 3/11, etc.) is a natural at the popular diary-format genre, and she brings her impressive perceptivity and lively humor to a sparky new protagonist. Where Pickle Juice’s Eleanor was uncertain, Celie is indignant, constantly seeking information and leverage to heighten her authority and keep up with the adults and her sixth-grade sister (readers will sympathize with her complaint of “Everybody excluded me from everything! It wasn’t fair”). Her split from Lulu is one of those elementary-school rifts that seems inexplicable until closer examination reveals the cause, and while the girls’ move toward rapprochement involves some wishful maturation, it provides good relationship modeling. The scribbly artwork is nicely balanced between plausible and effective, and the layout—often bedecked with tape sporting Celie’s beloved narwhals—is invitingly browsable and undemanding. Sternberg fans will leap on this, but it’s also an excellent entry for readers who love peeking into fictional diaries and are looking for a spirited new elementary-schooler heroine. [End Page 231] Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1941 by S. Aihoshi

Aihoshi, Susan. Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1941. Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2012. Print.Admittedly, my long-standing interest in, and familiarity with, Japanese-Canadian history initially made leery, but I now highly recommend this book for anyone from teenagers up (not just Scholastic’s “older girls” target). It deftly handles a transformational episode in the evolution of Canada as we know it today. It manages to encompass complexity, avoids being preachy, and fairly represents a young voice who understands the seriousness of the situation but is still a kid, after all.Torn Apart is a recent installment of Scholastic’s Dear Canada series of fictional girls’ diaries set during important historical events. My main concern with the book (and series premise) is that distinctions between primary and secondary sources in history are difficult enough to introduce to novice historians without confusing the issue with skillfully-executed, fictional diaries of fictional people. One has to dig deeply to realize this is not an actual diary from a real person (i.e. primary source). On the other hand, it does give a sense of what historians work with in primary documents - the mysterious references, the days with nothing written, the big events missed because they weren’t part of the individual’s experience - while also giving an excellent and comprehensive overview of this complicated historical situation. The treatment of Japanese-Canadians in world war two is complicated. We may look back on it with dismay, embarrassment, and disbelief that it ever happened in our multicultural Canada but it highlights that our so-called multiculturalism is actually quite recent and, indeed, not fully complete. There may be temptations by some to treat the “evacuation” or “internment” as an anomaly or, conversely, as proof of a wholly racist culture, but Susan Aihoshi manages to capture elements of both extremes. Racism (or maybe ethnocentrism) was a common theme in political discourse in the Canada (and especially British Columbia) of the day and sticks out in surviving sources such as contemporary newspaper accounts, parliamentary debates, and speeches. At the individual level, however, many “white” or “hakujin” or non-Japanese Canadians were just as baffled by the reaction against fellow citizens who were as Canadian as they were; they were probably equally baffled by their own reactions to the hysteria and propaganda of war. Aihoshi does well to capture the individual antagonisms as well as individual friendships. Extremely importantly, she deals head-on with distinctions between actions of the Japanese at war in Asia (and as a possible threat to North America) and the reality of Japanese-Canadians far removed from that Japan.Although serious, the book is not dark and there are many light moments. I particularly enjoyed some the references that will be obscure to many modern readers, those not from the West Coast, or those unfamiliar with this history. This is a positive feature that lends a sense of realism to the account since anything from 73 years ago will obviously have unfamiliar references. Sometimes authors go overboard in forcing such references but Aihoshi does not. Just a few examples are Maple Buds, the milkman, Pat Bay, and Revels.I do wonder if the glossary and maps would be better placed at the beginning of the novel as many readers may not find them in the traditional location (i.e. at the end) until it’s too late. Also, the rough-cut, outer page edges may lend a feeling of diary authenticity, but do make page turning and flipping difficult. My leeriness was also allayed by Dr. Michiko Midge Ayukawa being listed in the acknowledgements as the historical consultant. She has been an inspiration to me for many reasons, including her passion for life-long learning. She started a B.A. in History after retiring from a career as a scientist in her 60s then continued on to complete an M.A. and PhD in History, particularly Japanese-Canadian history. Sadly, in writing this review I discovered she passed away in October 2013. It is a great loss and if this book passed through her expert hands, it is worth reading!Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: David SulzDavid is a Public Services Librarian at University of Alberta and liaison librarian to Economics, Religious Studies, and Social Work. He has university studies in Library Studies, History, Elementary Education, Japanese, and Economics; he formerly taught in schools and museums. His interests include physical activity, music, home improvements, and above all, things Japanese.

Pieces Of The Past: The Holocaust Diary Of Rose Rabinowitz by C. Matas

Matas, Carol. Pieces Of The Past: The Holocaust Diary Of Rose Rabinowitz. Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2013. Print. Dear Canada.The “Dear Canada” series from Scholastic recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with now more than 30 titles. It includes fictional diaries written from the point of view of a child or teenager during a time of historical significance. Pieces of the Past opens with Rose in her third Winnipeg foster home having been given the diary by her “not-father” Saul. Her guardian and a psychologist by trade, Saul suggests she write in it to help remember the past. At first she is reluctant to delve into her memories of such a dark and brutal time: “this little book seems far too small to write down ‘what happened’. How will I ever fit what is stuffed into my head into these tiny pages, all the wild waking nightmares tamed onto these straight lines…” However she progressively reveals more with each entry, interspersing her present-day teenage hardships of trying to fit in at school and in someone else’s home, with the atrocities she and her family endured during the Holocaust.The entries are intimate and immediately gripping. Alternating between her teenage and more child-like voice from the past heightens the emotional connection readers will feel with Rose, whose name was changed from “Rozia” when she arrived in Canada from her native Poland. She describes the gradual and confusing process of losing all of their possessions, their home and finding shelter with various other families in cramped apartments and eventually ending up in a lice-ridden underground dug out. Although in our present day, media-driven society we have become somewhat desensitized to the atrocities of the Holocaust and war in general, Rose’s story re-personalizes the tragedy in a very powerful way. As she begins to piece together the circumstances of the deaths and disappearances of her family members, we mourn with her. Some of the subplots and underlying themes will also resonate with youth of any generation. Her only friend, Susan, is the victim of bullying. Issues associated with foster care and blended families are also explored. Although at the conclusion of the diary, Rose’s circumstances are much improved it is by no means a fairy-tale ending. The author provides a subtle moral conclusion with no utopian delusions: “So diary, no storybook life for me. I know I can never really be safe. And I know that people who think they can be are just kidding themselves. But I know I can try to be good. And I will.” The book contains a lot of useful material for the classroom. There is a historical section that provides a summary of the major events recounted in the diary. There is also a timeline of the Warsaw Ghetto, a selection of black and white photographs, and some reproductions of primary source material from the war such as a young Polish emigrant’s identification document and newspaper articles about the arrival of Jewish orphans in Canada. This book is recommended for children Grades 4-6 and higher. It is an excellent addition to the series, and like another famous diary, Rose’s story will be forever etched in the reader’s psyche.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Kim Frail Kim is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. Children’s literature is a big part of her world at work and at home. She also enjoys gardening, renovating and keeping up with her kids.