Reader's Choice

Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic (Puffin, £4.99 in the UK) was the best book I ever read. It shows that wars just creep up on ordinary people, with ordinary lives, and destroys their happiness.

Zlata is an ordinary Bosnian girl living in Sarajevo until war breaks out, and the simple things that we take for granted, like water and electricity, become treasured possessions. She explains how her friends and family begin to leave or die, and how shelling and shooting become a daily event. It shows how war tears up families or tears up friendships and more.