Menno Metselaar

First, let me say that I loved this book. It contains a treasure trove of photos from Anne Frank's family, and will appeal to anyone (young or old) who has read the Diary of Anne Frank. But before I talk more about how wonderful the book is, I want to share one reservation I have about it.

My first impression of Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures is that it has been wrongly marketed for kids. Don't get me wrong, for dealing with a serious topic like the Holocaust, this book does an show more extremely good job of simplifying it for kids. There is only one section that I would recommend that parents read first, and that is the one dealing with concentration camps.

In the concentration camp section there is a discussion about gas chambers, and photos of small children, and mothers with babies walking toward the gas chambers. There was also a photo of piles of the emaciated and naked dead bodies of prisoners wherein the prison guards were being forced to bury them by the conquering Allied forces. I think that the images and accompanying text may be too serious for some in the targeted age range (nine to twelve year olds) to handle. I'm sure that parents know what their own kids are ready to see, but I wanted to raise this issue in my review so that parents can know about it beforehand and be ready to talk to their kids about it if they have any questions.

As for the rest of the book, it is absolutely amazing! There are photos of Anne from her childhood, and I loved the series of passport photos (shown on the cover) that show a myriad of expressions on her face. There are many photos of the rooms where Anne's family hid that bring the accompanying quotes from the diary to life. It was also neat to see what Anne's childhood friends looked like, and her relatives too. Looking at such photos is always a bittersweet experience though, knowing what happened to Anne and her family in the concentration camps.

One thing that I appreciated about the section on concentration camps was that there were eye-witness accounts and quotes from interviews with survivors of the camps who were with Anne and her family members while they were there. The reader is able to get a better idea of what life was like for Anne and her family, and in some cases to read about specific experiences that Anne had in the camps.

Anyone who has ever found themselves drawn into Anne's world through her diary shouldn't miss this book. Aside from my reservations about the content of the concentration camp section, I recommend it wholeheartedly. show less

for anyone who was obsessed with her diary (as i was). this is a gorgeous book - chock full of pictures and commentary and makes me even more desperate to visit amsterdam someday.

I would think I would have had enough reading books/viewing films about Anne Frank. I recently read her complete works book.

This book was on my to read list and I borrowed it when I saw it at the library. It’s shelved as juvenile biography.

There are more photos, more information about Anne’s life & death and more of Anne’s words in many other books. Even so, this book had a few photos I don’t remember seeing in other books and had information about Anne’s life that either slightly show more conflicted with what I had read or confirmed information with additional information about who had provided it.

There is more in this book than I remember previously reading of eyewitness accounts in the camps of survivors who knew all eight of those who had been hidden in the Secret Annex.

Even though Otto seemed to have gotten over not knowing, I still want to know who betrayed them.

The book, arranged mostly chronologically, is a touching and informative tribute. It does get rather graphic and I think is more appropriate for teens and adults than for children. The glossary and certain other of the book’s contents do seem to be geared to older children or to older people who don’t know much of anything about Anne or WWII or the Holocaust. I wouldn’t give this book to children younger than 11 and not to most 11-year-olds. I do recommend it though. It’s a lovely book and as I always seem to, I learned some things. show less

I clearly remember reading Anne Frank's diary for the first time: I was in fourth grade and we had just studied the Holocaust in school. My mom had a copy of the diary from when she was young, and I poured over the words of this girl from not so long ago and was mesmerized by her story. Ever since, I have been deeply interested and affected by so many people's stories from that dark period in history. I always come back to the story of Anne Frank, though, and this new book released from the show more archives of the Anne Frank House is such a wonderful tribute to her diary and her life.
The book is primarily a pictorial history of the life of Anne Frank and her family, beginning with photos of her parents' wedding in 1925. An amazingly large amount of the Frank family's family photos were somehow preserved throughout the hiding process and the subsequent discovery of their hiding place in 1944. Interspersed with the pictures are quotes from Anne's diary and various commentaries on the photos.
This book is a great stand-alone introduction to Anne Frank and also a helpful companion to the diary and to those who are already familiar with her life. It is a powerful reminder of all the lives, all the families, that were destroyed in the Holocaust. Anne Frank put a face on the more than 1 million children who perished under Hitler's regime. show less