Book Report: Rutka's Notebook

Author: Laskier, Rutka
Title: Rutka’s Notebook
Place of Publication: Poland
Company: Time Book
Date: 2006

Reason, Type and Setting: I selected this book because I thought it sounded very interesting because it is a real diary. The genre of this book would be historical. The book takes place in 1943 in Bedzin, Poland during the Holocaust.
Plot: In the book Rutka describes issues in her daily teenage life such as with her friends and boys that she likes. She also describes the Holocaust and many of the war atrocities she witnesses. Some teenage conflicts she faces are with a boy named Janek who she has mixed emotions about. One week she hates him and the other she hates him. Some conflicts Rutka faces with the war are she witnesses the Nazi’s do many horrible things to the people in her town, and also a boy she likes named Jumek is sent to Auschwitz. Rutka also escapes from going to a labor camp by jumping out of a window and running home. After a while she feels like a lot of her innocence and happiness is gone because of all of the things she had to see and experience from the war.
Character: Rutka Laskier is a smart and confident fourteen year old girl. She describes herself in her diary as very beautiful with big black eyes and short black hair, and as also being thin and tall. In the begging of the book she seems more optimistic and positive, but by the end because she says many horrible things go on she loses hope and accepts her fate of being sent to Auschwitz.
Evaluation: Yes I liked this book a lot. I thought it was very interesting but also very hard to read because some parts are so sad. I think this book did inform me a lot and I now know more about the Holocaust, and what daily life was like for Jewish people. The main life values it taught me are to love life and the people you have in your life. And it also makes me feel really lucky that I don’t live in a country where there is war or genocide. I would recommend this book to others because I think many people would find this book interesting and it is important for Rutka’s story to be told.
Author, Context and Trivia: I have never read a book like this before but now that I have, I also want to read Anne Frank’s diary. Over all I really liked this book and thought that the story was really amazing. I think that Rutka was a very strong person and this book inspires me to work harder in life, and be grateful for how easy I have life.