Zlata Filipovic

Zlata is a pre-teen girl living in Sarajevo at the time of the outbreak of the Bosnian war in 1992. When the book begins, Zlata is ten, and the book ends when she is twelve. She records her thoughts and daily happenings as the war progresses. Eventually the relevant entries of her diary are published by UNICEF during the war.

Zlata could be described as a perfectly normal child prior to the war. She has many friends from school, she takes piano and voice lessons, she enjoys listening to American pop songs (like Madonna) and reading. She lives with her mother and father, who love her deeply. She enjoys spending summer vacations at the family's vacation home in Crnotina, and during the winter the family leaves for a region called Jahorina to ski.

After the war, Zlata expresses the sort of fear, confusion, anger, and loneliness one might...