Zlata's Diary

Although Zlata and her father recover quickly, her mother has pneumonia through February. School starts again and finds Zlata caught up in her responsibilities: school, music lessons, studying, and practicing piano. She hopes her mother gets well enough that they may visit Jahorina again.

In early March, the city responds to a hate crime involving a Serbian wedding guest in Sarajevo by putting up barricades. People soon tire of the situation and stage a peaceful protest, which Zlata and her parents join.

Though school continues, barricades and tensions remain. Rumors that 3,000 soldiers are coming to attack to Sarajevo worry Zlata. She recounts an argument on Yutel TV between Radovan Karadžić, the Bosnian Serb leader, and Alija Izetbegovic, the president of newly independent Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Zlata thinks things are back to normal, but events soon take another turn. Though Sarajevo has quieted, other parts of Bosnia see fighting; Zlata reports terrible pictures on the news daily, though her parents keep the worst from her. UN soldiers arrive in Sarajevo, and while Zlata writes that they feel safer now, tensions mount. By the end of March, panic and rumors abound. Amid this upheaval, Zlata names her diary “Mimmy,” inspired by Anne Frank’s name for her diary, Kitty.