Anne's diary stands on its merits

I first met Anne, Edith, Otto, Margo, Peter and others after Thelma Roberts caught me not paying attention in her English class.
I was reading a book assigned by my civics teacher when Mrs. Roberts busted my chops.
What, she asked, was more important than watching her diagram sentences?
The book was John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage, and I was behind in the assignment.
She took the book and told me to see her after class.
After everyone else had left me to my punishment, she handed me a different book, saying something to the effect that “if you’re interested in courageous people, read this one.”
Thus was I introduced to The Diary of Anne Frank, and exposed to a sad history I really knew little about.
Decades later, Anne’s two-year diary, which ends abruptly on Aug. 1, 1944, stays with me.
I think of this as the Eunice Players Theatre production of the play based on the diary opens tonight.
And I wonder how many 10th-graders today have read the diary, or whether it is even on a required reading list.
Glancing back through its pages this week, I realize the diary all these years later is still pretty much typical of a teenager, though the circumstances under which she lived and wrote were not.
The Book Police rail about the diary and some of its content.
Fortunately, the work stands on its merits, not their opinion.

You can reach Editor Jim Butler at jim.butler@eunicetoday.com