Zlata's Diary

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following statements is true about Zlata’s voice and personality in her early entries?

A. She is often sad and depressed.

B. She is cheerful and has a unique sense of humor.

C. She is socially awkward and shy.

D. She complains and is moody.

2. Which detail best captures Zlata’s childhood innocence before the war?

A. Describing her schoolwork as a “responsibility”

B. Worrying about Srdjan in Dubrovnik

C. Getting good grades

D. Winning a dance contest

3. What is Zlata’s opinion about politics?

A. She thinks that the division of the country is for the best.

B. She does not care for politics at all but tries to understand it.

C. She someday wants to be a politician.

D. All of the above

4. Why does Zlata painstakingly record each birthday and holiday?

A. Celebrations help maintain a sense of hope and normalcy.

B. She is afraid the war will make her forget her loved ones.

C. Celebrations must take place in secret.

D. She recognizes that she may never celebrate them again.

5. Why are letters so important to Zlata’s family?

A. They offer protection.

B. They offer coupons and savings.

C. They represent hope and human connection.

D. They represent an external view of the war.

6. How is school different during war?

A. There is no school because it is too dangerous.

B. It is full of political propaganda.

C. Grades are mixed together and classes are often delayed.

D. All of the above

7. Over the course of the war, how does Zlata’s tone/attitude change toward her situation?

A. She is first anxious, then depressed, and then completely without hope.

B. She is first shocked, then resigned to a “new normal,” and then exhausted and outraged.

C. Her attitude remains the same throughout the war.

D. She is first excited, then nervous, and then hopeful and upbeat.

8. Zlata’s motif of darkness and light most likely represents which of the following?

A. The difference between life before and after the war

B. The constant play of her emotions between hope and despair

C. The inconsistent availability of electricity and the need for candles

D. The light of justice that holds the perpetrators of atrocities accountable

9. Zlata calls the arguing politicians “kids,” sending which of the following messages?

A. That war is absurd and childish

B. That the people in power are stubborn and unforgiving

C. That war is nothing but a game with winners and losers

D. All of the above

10. What limitations might Zlata’s diary have when viewed as a historical record of the Bosnian War?

A. As a single perspective, it can’t capture the scope of the political or ethnic divisions.

B. Because the family leaves in 1993, there is only a record of part of the war.

C. The diary does not continue postwar, limiting understanding of long-term impacts.

D. All of the above

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. In what ways do the Preface and Introduction contextualize the diary as a record of the Bosnian War?

2. How much does the journalist Janine di Giovanni’s characterization of Zlata match up with Zlata’s character as revealed through her diary entries? What characteristics does di Giovanni overlook, and what does di Giovanni observe that Zlata does not see about herself?

3. What must the family do to adapt to life during war, and what factors in their life help them to make this jarring transition quickly, without completely falling apart?

4. In what ways is the shock of the war apparent in the style and tone of Zlata’s entries as the war begins, and when does this attitude finally begin to subside?

5. What aspects of Zlata’s coming of age are typical? What aspects are due to the war?

6. In what ways is the coming of the first spring since the war started especially difficult for Zlata? What symbolic or emotional reasons might she have for dwelling on this particular moment?

7. Zlata implies that Bosnia’s ethnic division is laughable and unpopular, yet ethnic nationalism was one of the inciting reasons for the war. In what ways might her neighborhood and class/social standing contribute to this attitude, and how might this attitude limit the reliability of her account of the war?

8. The diary ends on an uncertain note, with a single line that reads “Until then…????” (197). Given the full context of the Bosnian War and Zlata’s experiences, why is this an appropriate way to end the diary?