Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey.
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Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures
On June 12, 1929, a young German girl was born. Had history played out differently, she might well have been celebrating her 82nd birthday today. Anne Frank lived in extraordinary times—and in recording those times, she ultimately became the world’s most famous young writer.
Scores of books providing supplementary reading for The Diary of Anne Frank have appeared over the years. In 2009 Roaring Brook Press published one of the best, a translation of a book that first appeared in the Netherlands. An elegantly designed edition of about 210 pages—adorned with a cover that wraps around the book—Anne Frank: Her Life and Words in Pictures looks and feels like photo album. And it is just that—of Anne and her family. The album opens with a photo of one of Anne’s best presents, the diary she received on her thirteenth birthday.
Often quoting that diary, the book shows readers a wedding picture of the Franks and Anne and Margot as babies. Because we know the end of the story, every photograph in this family photo album seems poignant and haunting. These two typical German girls pictured will not have a normal adolescence experience.
As we know, the Franks leave Germany for Holland because of persecution of the Jews. The photographs document how year by year Anne ages, plays with friends, has parties, or goes to the seashore. As the text reminds readers, soon these simple pleasures will be denied all Jews. A series of photos shows the Annex that Otto Frank constructed; pictures display the daily living quarters. Excerpts from Anne’s diary tell us how much she longs to walk outside, to breathe fresh air, to have a normal life again.
By the time August 4, 1944 arrives, when Anne and her family are captured in the Annex, readers of this photo album experience the intense emotions of realizing these people they now know intimately have been caught and will be sent to concentration camps. The photos have brought Anne Frank to life as a real girl.
No book written by a young writer has ever had the impact of The Diary of Anne Frank. Perfect to use with it, Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures extends the text, elucidates it, and adds to reader’s understanding. Produced in cooperation with the Anne Frank House where a million visit each year, this small volume can be appreciated by those who tour the house and those who only can do so by visiting the house website.
Happy birthday Anne Frank. Because of your diary and books like Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures, you are still with us, reminding us of the cost of hatred and prejudice.
Here’s a page from Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures:
Also recommended:
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Additional Information
A few other events for
- Happy birthday Helen Lester (Tacky the Penguin), Hilary McKay (Saffy’s Angel), and Kristiana Gregory (Jenny of the Tetons).
- It’s the birth date of Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), The Water Babies, Johanna Spyri (1827-1901), Heidi, and Shizuye Takashima (1928-2005), A Child in Prison Camp.
- In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II of England dedicates “Shakespeare’s Globe,” a modern reconstruction of the Globe Theater, built by the Bard’s theater company in 1599. Read William Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki.
- It’s World Day Against Child Labor. Read Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell Freedman, photographs by Lewis Hine and Counting On Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop.