Product Description
Anne Frank's diary is the most widely-read book after the Bible, yet never before has a biography of her been published. Carol Anne Lee has been allowed access to previously unpublished documents and gives a definitive account of Anne Frank's short life before, during and after the diary. ... Read more

Product Description
Traces the life of a young Jewish girl who kept a diary during two years she and her family hid from the Germans in an Amsterdam attic. ... Read more

Product Description
For people all over the world, Anne Frank has become the "human face of the holocaust". Drawing on interviews with family and friends, Melissa Muller creates a subtle portrait of Frank, tracing her life from idyllic childhood in Frankfurt to her passionate adolescence in occupied Amsterdam. ... Read more

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Grades 9-12.Here's a whole manual full of puzzles, games, and worksheets related to Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.It includes:1 Unit word list & clues4 Unit fill in the blank worksheets4 Unit multiple choice worksheets4 Unit magic squares4 Unit word searches4 Unit crosswords32 Unit bingo cards1 Vocabulary word list & definitions4 Vocabulary fill in the blank worksheets4 Vocabulary matching worksheets4 Vocabulary magic squares worksheets4 Vocabulary word searches4 Vocabulary crosswords4 Vocabulary juggle letter review worksheets1 Master set of vocabulary flash cards32 Vocabulary bingo cardsAnswer keys to all worksheets & puzzlesUnit words are character names, symbols, places, etc. Vocabulary words are chosen from the book and are the same words used in the LitPlan Teacher Pack.Uses:Great to refresh your LitPlan Teacher Pack, for review, extra credit, or reinforcement work, substitute teacher days, work for students who finish in-class assignments early, and more! ... Read more

Product Description
For two years, Anne Frank and her family lived in hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex. During this time of fear and oppression, one young girl kept a record of her life. In the midst of the tragedy of war, Anne kept her hopes for peace alive and her indomitable spirit lives on in the words of her Diary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Frankly, It's All About Anne
I am a big believer in children being introduced to the personal lives of key people in history, so that they are not only familiar with the contributions to world society that person made and be inspired, but also to put a human face they can relate to for the era in history that person inhabits. It makes history personal. The problem is not so much that the "important" people are not well known, but that accessible material about them geared to children is hard to find, and by accessible, I mean entertaining in a way that while the facts are presented, the child actually wants to use the material. Now, my kids are like most kids. They LOVE cartoons and comic books as much as the next kid, and it is probably not a huge surprise given my own reading tastes, that they have a love of Japanese graphic novels in particular.

It was therefore with great interest that one day while browsing Digital Manga's website, I came across the Edu-manga series. I asked the sales office rep about these titles, and she helped me source all five of the titles they had published. They have not been reprinted, but stocks are readily available via Amazon, Play.com, and other manga specialists, so not that difficult to get your hands on. I admit I had some trepidation on this matter. Firstly, these are COMICS. Now, I have read plenty of manga, and I know they can be quite serious in tone, and indeed, in Japan, many manuals and such are even produced in this format. I was not concerned about the format itself, but the fact that being aimed at kids, maybe it was dumbed down in some way. My second concern was that these were written originally in Japanese for the Japanese market, then translated, so what , for example, would their "take" be on European events? I decided they must be fairly balanced views and not overly dumbed down, else an American publishing house would not have gone to all the expense of licensing and translating it, so having the books sourced for me, I happily awaited their arrival.

As it happens, the first book we decided to look at was about Anne Frank. I was particularly interested in this one because Anne Frank's diary moved me deeply when I first read it as a child of 12. My daughter is not quite nine, so not old enough to really understand a lot of emotions and the finer dirty details of the life Anne lived. I did think though that Anne Frank was a person I wanted my children to know, preferably before being assigned her diary as an educational read a few years down the line, so that as we studied events from WW II, they had that personal "face" of a real person to put on that time frame. Here, the children were being placed on trains and sent way to homes far away to escape the bombs, but there, children were herded onto trains for a darker different purpose, and families fled to secret homes to attempt an escape a fate worse than the possibility of a random bomb drop. This is the reality of Anne, who nonetheless hoped, laughed and dreamed in the way every young girl has. This was the persona that my daughter and son could identify with, whose emotions they could feel, to completely understand what it was like in those dark days. Well, they could, if it was presented in a way they could understand.

So how did this fare? Well, not only were we enchanted by the presentation, but even I learned something. Rated for all ages, it has a reading level suitable for the 8 and above range, but a talented 6 or 7 year old could read it with minor assistance, as the vocabulary is not overly complicated, and while the subject matter is about a terribly violent and cruel period of our recent history, it is not explicit in its depictions though I would recommend being to hand as it is a story that will well the eyes with tears. The chapters are short and sandwiched between them are brief Q and A sections that explain key facts that may puzzle young readers. Astro Boy (yes, THAT Astro Boy) and his sister Uran are visiting their friend who is a professor. Uran has heard that a young girl became famous because she wrote a diary, and that young girl's name is Anne Frank. The professor says he knows about Anne, and takes the young pair to the Japanese city of Kobe as it has an important place related to Anne Frank, and that there , they can learn more about her.

What? Kobe, Japan? Just what does the city of Kobe have to do with a young Austrian girl who was killed by the Nazis in Europe? I didn't know either, and was fascinated by the answer. You see, Anne's diary touched so many, and her place in history has been that human face I spoke of earlier. The one that represents the nonsensical ruin of a life of so many innocents who suffered during that terrible time. A time that the Japanese see as one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, and so, in Kobe, they have built a church in her honour, complete with a statue of Anne and a memorial rose garden: Nishinomiya Anne's Rose Church . Now, I know Anne was Jewish, but the Japanese built this after consulting with Anne's father and his approval. Today, schoolchildren from Japan and tourists from around the world stop here while visiting the prefecture, and pay their respects to the memory of Anne Frank, to learn her story, and to etch in their hearts the need to never forget the terrible true price of genocide and war. So, it is very fitting that our two young Japanese friends visit here with professor, and begin to learn about the life of an ordinary young woman who came to symbolise a lost generation.

The biographical part starts out with Anne's birth,and her parents are snapping photos of the newborn with her sister. We are treated to vignettes of ordinary life, interspersed with the intrusion of the ugliness that was to spread. People wearing armbands suddenly shouting "Juden" and smashing shop windows. A panel with Anne's father explaining the bad things they see, followed by a panel showing Hitler poised in that infamous salute, with the explanation rolling over. Anne grows up, starts school, the family moves, and things move onwards, steadily advancing to the terrible reality that was the attic, and their subsequent discovery by the Nazis, and the camp that followed. We see all of this, and while it is a lot of information for a graphic novel of only 168 pages, it is more than enough to tell us the story of Anne's life. This is not meant to replace the famous Diary, but to talk about who Anne was, how she came to write it, how she died, and why the world holds her diary so close to its collective heart. In fact, it drums home (without browbeating) that the Diary of Anne Frank is a must read.

With the strategically placed Q and A sections between chapters, children have many questions answered that would likely confuse them, as it did Astro Boy and Uran. Questions like, "Why did the Nazis decide to persecute the Jews?", "What kind of place was a concentration camp?" , and "Does the Secret Annex where Anne lived still exist?". In addition, thanks to this being a graphic novel following Anne and her sister as they too question what they see happening about them, readers are treated to the explanations given them by Anne's parents. This makes the time period more understandable in an unartificial way as well as acting to bind young readers' personal experience as an "eyewitness" as they stand virtually beside Anne and see and hear this themselves. I quite like how it managed to explain the Holocaust in ways that would not engender horrific nightmares in the young, and the way it depicted the happenings without demonising the people of an entire country.

The end of the book is another wealth of information that parents and teachers can make great use of. It has a small section explaining how Anne's father came to publish the diary, followed by another section that contains four short biographies of people who "dedicated themselves to Anne's Dream and world peace". Admittedly, these people probably did not know Anne at the time, but nonetheless, they shared the same dream. The first person is Anne's father, which is quite fitting. The next name on the list did not surprise me, and I was really happy to see a mention of him in a children's book as the only other book (or film for that matter) that I know of is definitely not one to show children: Oskar Schindler. The next two names did surprise me, I had to admit I had NEVER heard of them (hangs head in shame). Chiune Sugihara, anyone?

Yes, when the majority of us think of the second world war and the Japanese, we usually and rather unfairly only think of Pearl Harbour, Iwo Jima, and such, right? That is only half of the story though, as Sugihara-san proves. In 1940, this man was the Japanese consular from Japan to Lithuania. There, he used his position to issue upwards of 6000 entry visas for Japan to fleeing Jews before the Japanese government stopped him. Yes, that is more than Schindler, isn't it? But nobody made a movie or wrote a novel about him, though perhaps they should. I think it would be fascinating, as he worked sandwiched between the Emperor of Japan and his government as they fought the Allies, and the advancing Nazis on the other, with a tide of desperate humanity looking for someone to help them.

The last one is someone else with ties to Japan, though he was an Austrian, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the Austrian scientist who put forward the idea that became the modern EU. He was born in Tokyo to his Japanese mother, who was married to the Austrian minister to Japan. He first put this idea forth during the war years, but had to flee Austria once the Germans occupied it, surfacing in the USA, and returning to Europe after the war to push his idea of a Pan European state, one where each nation would have a voice and listen to others, in a hope that war once more would not ravage Europe. Regardless of what one thinks of the modern EU, having it put into perspective like that makes one take stock, and maybe to want to kick some people for straying from ideals. Ahem..

The last little detail this gem has is a time line. Now, I really love how this was done. It has three columns, so that one can see events in tandem at a glance. The first column follows Anne's life, the second the political events in Europe, while the third shows what happened in Japan, the US and elsewhere around the world at the same time. It keeps to just key points as otherwise it would be unwieldy, but it makes for an excellent resource to cross reference with other study materials on down the line. With its larger print, bigger than average art panels, and simpler language, this is sure to engage to the attention of a child being introduced to it and they certainly will come away from it knowing more about WW II and Anne Frank than they did going in. This is not to say that this won't have some possible hiccups with western users though.

The first issue is minor. This is "native manga", so you will have to introduce the uninitiated in the proper way to read it. That is, the "back cover" is actually the "front", and you read the panels right to left. It is not difficult however, and the last page of the book actually has a pictorial guide to aid the unwary. The second quibble is the paper quality, It's almost like newsprint and is off-white. So, what I am saying is, it feels a bit cheap, and ham handed kids very well may rip the pages. It is no worse quality than most kids' cheap paperback books though, so as long as you make sure they know how to properly treat a book, you'll be okay. It is a slight disappointment, however, as it being educational material, you would think they might go a bit more upmarket with the paper to encourage schools and libraries to stock it, as multiple children would be handling it. It is not enough though to take away a star, so I'll just be done with mentioning it and leave it at that. Having done such a great job overall, we are looking forward to reading the other titles, and meeting Mother Teresa, Beethoven, Helen Keller, and Albert Einstein.

For the interested, sample pages of this title can be viewed at [...] ... Read more

Product Description
The Diary of Anne Frank taught the value of love andforgiveness and became a worldwide, enduring bestseller. In DearCara: Letters from Otto Frank, the story continues and expands.Through his letters, Otto, the only survivor in the family,became a treasured wise friend to thousands of young peoplearound the world giving simple, honest responses to theirquestions.Cara, a young American girl, kept his letters,followed his advice, and honored Otto as her surrogatefather. Nearly 20 years later, as a grown woman and mother, shejourneyed to Amsterdam to see the home where Anne had been hiddenin an attic for two years before her murder. Cara listened tosome of the holocaust stories from the Dutch people who hadsheltered the Franks, then traveled to Switzerland to fulfill alife-long dream to finally meet her mentor and his second wife inSwitzerland.She embraced the tender, frail old man who had beenable to live Anne's belief that "In spite of everything, I stillbelieve people are really good at heart." He had not forgottenthose who had betrayed their wartime hiding place, nor did hewish for revenge. He had managed, through his own radiant spiritand the poignant words of his dead daughter, to embrace the bestin people and forgive those who had been the worst.Cara andOtto, generations apart, know love can bloom in every culturethrough the most painful of times and their brief coming togetherwas the best of times.Dear Cara: Letters from Otto Frankcaptures the horrors of war in Europe and the tumultuous postwardecades in America.Most of all, it shares the treasures of lovein all its manifestations.Otto is a beloved teacher, and Carareally listens from her heart: each is a blessing for theother. This story tells it honestly as their private lettersreveal their true selves and bridges the gap between their ages,cultures and life experiences.Dear Cara: Letters from OttoFrank is a "keeper," a book for young and old readers.PUBCOMMENTS: The Diary of Anne Frank, one of our enduringinspirational books, was written by a young girl who died in aNazi concentration camp in World War II.Otto Frank, her fatherand the only family survivor, motivated people all over the worldto carry on Anne's message of love and hope in their ownlives. Otto never wanted Anne remembered as a victim but as aliving spirit through her words.A generation later, a youngAmerican girl began conversations with Otto through lettersreflecting her own chaotic teenage years and the violence inAmerica in the 1960s and '70s.His responses helped her matureinto a loving, trusting woman.Cara Weiss Wilson wrote this bookfrom her extraordinary correspondence with Otto and theinspiration she drew from it.He validated her need to be heardand respected; he became her mentor, her wise "grandfather," ashe was for so many others.He taught the importance of toleranceand true spirituality, focusing on the power of love, notrevenge.He said, "If the world were ending tomorrow, I wouldstill plant a tree today."He truly lived his message.Cara'stwenty-year correspondence with Otto culminated in a memorablemeeting shortly before his death, and influenced the rest of herturbulent life.Her remarkable book helps others lead fulfillinglives and renews our faith in the possibility of forgiveness andoptimism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

From Girl to Woman (With a Very Special Mentor)
"I received your kind letter and thank you for it. It was very nice of you to send me your photo, so that I have a better impression of you as a person..."

So begins Otto Frank's first letter to a young American girl in 1957, a suburban California girl named Cara as much in the mainstream of American society as the pop songs she listens to on the radio. That girl had read Anne's diary, had been deeply moved by it, and had written to Anne's father.

He wrote back.

Cara wrote to him again. Otto wrote back. She wrote again. He wrote again. And so on and so forth...for decades. They grew close. Cara faced all the same questions we face, about school, love, marriage, child-rearing, politics, family. But she had a very, very special mentor.

This book is her story of that relationship. Yes, it's a remarkable pairing. But it's also a remarkable tour through the last half of the 20th century, through the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam, the Watergate days, too many wars in the Middle East; all reflected in a single woman's coming of age. The letters back and forth are always revealing and quite often gripping. They are about private troubles and public issues. And when Cara, as a woman, goes to visit an ailing Otto, by now an old man, it would take a reader with a hard heart indeed not to feel a lump in the throat, at least. Then, when Otto her a collection of something that takes us, the reader, completely over the edge, in the best possible way.

We recommend this book to anyone, of any age. It is just special.

Dear Cara Offers Inspiration and Shares a Story of Love
Dear Cara is a book about a man and a woman, across the world from one another, both in miles and the lives they lead.Otto Frank, who survived the death camps of the Holocaust but lost his daughter there, shares his hope and inspiration with a young American woman whose life is unfolding.His shares his unfailing human spirit and his love with Cara, a young woman who first wrote to him at the age of 13.Throughout her life, from her teen-age years, to college to marriage to motherhood, Otto Frank is there with her, offering his support and his inspiration.He listens to Cara's dreams, her troubles, her worries and through their correspondence, she feels the joy that a young person feels when someone is listening.A young woman's voice is heard.When, as an older woman, Cara's world is turned upside down, the wisdom and hope that Otto Frank gave her for twenty years, sustains her through her pain and provides her the support she needs to endure and accept, and ultimately, to grow from her own experiences. This book is must-read for young people and for adults who believe, or want to remember, through pain and turmoil, how important and precious hope, and love, is. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An Abomination!
I have seen some wretched books on the market in my day, but nothing, absolutely nothing, is as offensive and as crass as this.First of all, psychoanalysis is not a science, which makes these authors' approach to Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum's respective ordeals cheap enough, but even with that, it's an abomination to put two women who were victims of the Holocaust under such horrific, over-analyzed scrutiny.As Richard Nixon once said, "I don't mind when people put me under a microscope, but when they use a proctoscope, that's going too far."Indeed!This book is so bad it's unbelievable.

A landmark!
Denise de Costa has written a valuable and extraordinarily
intelligent interpretation of Anne Frank the individual behind the writer, as she presented herself in her original diaries and then in the revised manuscript she prepared in hiding. Reading between these texts de Costa's insights are dazzling, critical and thought provoking: she examines Anne's motivation to write, her growing dependency on the diary, her unfolding maturity and her troubled relationship with her mother. This is a compelling book and a major contribution to our understanding of Anne Frank.

maganifcent book!
the book about anne frank is truely marvalous! A wondfull biography for a teenager or young adult! Defently mworth reading!

1 ... Read more

Product Description
This book contains the life story of Anne Frank, from her early happy childhood in Frankfurt, growing up in Amsterdam, her two years in hiding and the last few months of her life in the concentration camps. Narrated in six clearly written chapters, this biography for children answers the many detailed questions about Anne that readers of the Diary often have, and includes interesting anecdotes from friends who survived her. There is an Historical Note at the beginning of the book and a map of Europe, so that children will be able to understand the situation at the time, and an Introduction by Anne Frank's cousin, Buddy Elias. ... Read more

Product Description
Here is the story of Anne Frank, who, from 1942 to 1944, hid from the Nazis with her family in a secret apartment in Amsterdam. As Hitler carried out his plans to rid Europe of all Jews, Anne bravely made the best of her confined life. She wrote in her diary, kept up with her studies, and pasted photographs of movie stars on her wall. Strong and courageous to the end, she was caught in a time and a place that should never have been, and that must never be allowed to exist again.
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Customer Reviews (3)

Outstanding!
Simply put...this is THE best book for introducing Anne Frank and the Holocaust to the youngest readers. I disagree with the Horn Book that the folk-style art doesn't fit.Instead, it makes Anne seem like a little kidto the youngest readers/listeners.Buy this book to teach about Anne Frankand the Holocaust..it's perfect!

brilliant for children
This is a wonderful book for young children to read to introduce them to the holocaust.i am 22years old, an di had to read it for a childrens literature class, and it had me spellbound!the pictures are a greatattention grabber for children and help them follow along.this would be awonderful teachers aid in a classroom!the illustrations are wonderful,colorful and cheery.yes, the cheery pictures do not fit with the plot,but it is perfect in a childrens story.keep up the good work Yona

This book was the best I ever read!!!!
This book is sooooo GOOD! The author really does a MARVELOUS job! The book is so FANTASIC that I couldn't put it down, even when my parents told me to go to bed(I read it under the covers)! I recomend this book to ANYONE interested in the Holocaust! ... Read more

Product Description
Traces the life of a Jewish girl who chronicled her day-to-day life in a diary as she hid in an attic in Nazi-occupied Holland for two years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good
This book gave enough information to satisfy me, yet I think it should have given more. It told me her talents, her thoughts, and clips of her diary, but not that much about the holocaust, except what it did tell me made me want to read the diary of Anne Frank.
Read this first!

Great and True look of a great view of life
This book could well be one of the best books i have read. I bought it for my cousin and I started reading it and I couldnt stop. It Is a true perseption of a young girls life and through her diary enteries she truelybecomes a woman. Her thoughs and ieads change as she gets older and shetells of her story's from the Secret Annex where she was in hiding duringworld war Two as she was a jew... the book tells of her life coping withthe Nasisist Powers in Germany. Great BOOK! ... Read more

Product Description
This is a unique and powerful photographic history which documents the life and times of Anne Frank against a backdrop of war - but which also shows the continuing dangers of racism in today's world. Packed with photographs from the Frank family's albums, the archives of the Anne Frank House and news agencies throughout Europe, "The World of Anne Frank" is an essential companion for anyone who has ever read and loved "The Diary of Anne Frank". ... Read more

Product Description
Part of a biographical series which uses photographs and narrative to show the life and work of notable men and women and their effect on today's world, this title explores the life of Anne Frank, whose diary of her time hiding from the Nazis and tragic death has made one of the most famous and inspirational figures of 20th century history. ... Read more

Product Description
Traces the life of the young Jewish girl whose diary chronicles the years she and her family hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Anne wasn't the first and wasn't the last... .
Anne was a girl with her familly in Netherlandduring the World War II ...This book is the story of her life in a left house to be hidden... At last she died in Bergen_Belzen, two mounts before the last day of war inNetherland...

wonderful,great, and a big sad story all wrapped together
Every girl has to read this book and then after you finish it you have to get Memories of Anne Frank.It tells the life of her friend Hannah and how Hannah meets Anne in the camps. ... Read more

Product Description
In this account of the life, work and ethics of four Jewish female intellectuals in the world of the Holocaust, Rachel Feldhay Brenner explores the ways in which these women sought to maintain their faith in humanity while aware of exacerbating destruction. She argues that through their written responses of autobiographical self-assertion Edith Stein, Simone Weil, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum resisted the Nazi terror in ways that defy its horrifying dehumanization. Personal identity crises engendered the intellectual-spiritual acts of autobiograpical self-searching for each of these women. About to become a nun in 1933, Edith Stein embarked on her autobiography as a daughter of a Jewish family. Fleeing France and deportation in 1942, Simone Weil examined her inner struggle with faith and the Church in her "Spiritual Autobiography". Hiding for over two years in the attic, Anne Frank poignantly confides in her diary about her efforts to become a better person. Having volunteered as a social worker in Westerbork, Etty Hillesum searches her soul for love in the reality of terror. In each case, autobiographical writing becomes an act of defiance that asserts humanity in a dehumanized/dehumanizing world. By focusing on the four women's accomplishments as intellectuals, writers and thinkers, Brenner's account liberates them from other posthumous treatments that depict them as symbols of altruism, sanctity and victimization. Her approach also elucidates the particular predicament of Western Jewish intellectuals, who trusted the ideals of the Enlightenment and believed in human fellowship. While suffering the terror of physical annihilation decreed by the Final Solution, these Jews had to contend with their exclusion from the world that they considered theirs. On yet another level, this study of four extraordinary life stories contributes to a deeper understanding of the postwar development of ethical, theological and feminist thought. In showing concern about a world that had ceased to care for them, Stein, Weil, Frank and Hillesum demonstrated that the meaning of human existence consisted in the responsibility for the other, in the protection of the suffering God, in the primary value of relatedness through empathy. Arguing that their ethical tenets anticipated the thought of such postwar thinkers as Levinas, Fackenheim, Tillich, Arendt and Nodding, Brenner proposes that the breakup of the humanist tradition of the Enlightenment in the Holocaust engendered the postwar exploration of humanist potential in self-givenness to the other. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the true story of two best friends, one of whom was Anne Frank. Since their first meeting at school in Amsterdam in September 1941, Jacqueline van Maarsen and Anne Frank were inseparable. Although the anti-Jewish laws meant that there were few activities open to them, the girls still had a lot of fun together. They made a pact: that if one of them had to go away, then they would write the other a letter of farewell. Then, suddenly, Anne disappeared. Shortly after, Jacqueline's own life changed dramatically. Her father was Jewish, but her mother was not, and Mrs van Maarsen was able to persuade the authorities that they were not really Jewish - and so Jacqueline was able to take off the yellow star which all Jews had to wear. Jacqueline van Maarsen gives a fascinating and moving account of her friendship with Anne and the effect of her sudden disappearance. She vividly describes how she and her own family lived through the Nazi occupation and how, at the end of the war, she was finally able to read the promised farewell letter from her very best friend, Anne Frank.Written by Jacqueline van Maarsen and adapted for children by Carol Ann Lee, this will appeal to all the millions of fans of The Diary of Anne Frank. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Friend Called Anne. By Josephine U.
Her name shall never be forgotten, for she told a story through her diary with such delicate words. She perished before she could live the fame she always dreamed of, changing the world without knowing she did so. Anne Frank has been known internationally because of her desire to keep a record of everything that happened to her during the time she lived.In A Friend Called Anne, Jacqueline Van Maarsen tells of her friendship with Anne ever since they met in Nazi-invaded Amsterdam. They watched together as their lives were slowly changing in ways that they didn't like but were powerless to prevent.When they met for the first time, they quickly became inseparable. This was until the day Anne and her family went into hiding to escape deportation to the Nazi concentration camps. Jacqueline describes the feeling of narrowly escaping deportation during the Holocaust and the tragedy of Anne's so sudden death. Although the book was presented well, the characters were lifeless which made this memoir tedious and unexciting.

A Friend Called Anne has a plot that is neither appealing nor exciting. I found the book itself slow and difficult to understand. I was amazed at the fact that the novel was a true story but disappointed in the writing itself. The author didn't give a great amount of details, therefore making the background information unclear and confusing. I am aware that the Holocaust was an extremely devastating time period and Jacqueline Van Maarson does not express such a feeling of tragedy in great detail. Without the specific details and descriptions of personalities, feelings and settings, the biography was lacking in many ways. Although it was quite a good example of the true meaning of friendship and a special one at that, I would have liked to hear more about the Anne and Jacqueline's childhood friendship before the Nazi's took over. If the author had really gone into to depth about the troubles and whereabouts of Anne's family, the storyline could possibly be strengthened. Towards the end, Jacqueline learned that Anne had been in hiding with the rest of her family for quite some time. I would have liked it much better if the author switched back and forth between Jacqueline's tale and Anne's tale at that point. Instead, she focused mainly on Jacqueline whose tale was quite flat and uneventful. In the final portion of the book, I wanted to hear about Anne and her sister Margot captured in the Bergen-Belsen camp, where they were sent from Auschwitz. However, I enjoyed hearing Jacqueline's feelings after hearing of Anne's death. As she revisited Anne's hiding spot when times were worst, she spotted picture of her and Anne as young children and told Mr. Frank, "Looking at the pictures on the fading wallpaper of Anne's room in the secret annex was like looking at ghosts." But overall, I was disappointed in the book because I know how exciting Anne Frank's experience was and it did not portray appealing and exciting stories I was hoping for.

I found the biography dull and depressing purely because the emotionless characters and lack of details. The author poorly presents the relationships between people and places. Nothing about the book amused me in any way, and in my opinion, that is my definition of a boring story. ... Read more