A Picture Book of Anne Frank

“A Picture Book of Anne Frank,” written by David A. Adler and illustrated by Karen Ritz, is a wonderful book that I enjoyed reading. The main message of this book is to inform readers of the experiences Jews faced during WWII and to introduce them to the famous historical figure, Anne Frank. In order to convey this message, the author and illustrator used literary devices, such as word choice, illustrations, timeline, and historical facts.
Throughout this story, the reader learns about the Holocaust and the effects it had on the Jewish people. A literary element used to help make this story come alive and convey its message is the text that was used. The author used simple words in order to make it easier for the reader to follow show more along with and comprehend the story. Also, the author used the text to characterize Anne’s family in a way that makes the reader feel like they know the Frank family, which causes the reader to feel emotionally connected to the characters. Along with this, the author also inserted direct quotes from Anne Frank’s diary. For Example, when Anne is hiding in the attack, the author inserted the quote, “I am longing, so longing for everything…to talk, for freedom, for friends, to be alone. And I do so long…to cry!” This quote, along with the others used, help the reader feel empathy for Anne’s character and family. Through this empathy, the reader feels connected, on an emotional level, to Anne’s story.
Another way the author conveys the message is through the historical facts presented. This story is told in chronological order, starting at the beginning of the war and ending in 1945, when the Jews were liberated. The author uses significant dates throughout the story to help the reader follow along and comprehend how long the Jews had to suffer. I believe that using the historical dates puts everything into perspective, making it easy to understand what Anne, her family, and millions of other Jews went through. Along with these literary devices, the illustrations provided also contribute to conveying the message. For example, in the beginning of the story, the pictures are brightly colored, with the Frank family depicted as happy. As the story goes on, and the Jewish people are put into hiding or concentration camps, the illustrations become darker and depict the characters as looking sad, hurting, and malnourished. This use of illustrations allows the reader to visually see how the Holocaust affected the Jewish people, specifically Anne and her family. The illustrations also have small captions on them, such as the names of each person and the date of the photo, which also helps the reader to gain a deeper connection with the characters.
Through the use of illustrations, word choice, timeline, and historical facts, the author is able to successfully convey to the reader the experiences that many Jews faced during WWII and teach the reader about an important historical figure, Anne Frank. Although I have read several stories, books, and articles about the Holocaust and Anne Frank, David A. Adler’s book presented the story in a way that truly made me feel connected to the Frank family, especially Anne, and truly get an idea of the horrible things the Jewish people faced during WWII. I enjoyed reading this book and feel it is extremely well written, interesting, and engaging. show less

I really enjoyed this story because I never knew any information about Anne Frank or who she was. The language presented is very descriptive in such that there is a lot of text about each illustration on every page just about. The conflicts shown in the story are heartbreaking and to know that Anne Frank died at such a young age, is horrific.

The big idea of the story is to tell readers about Anne Frank's life and what happened to her family during the Nazi era.

When I first saw this book, I thought it would be a very watered down version of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” However, this book turned out to be a very factual summary of Anne Frank’s life. I really enjoyed the pictures and illustrations in this book. There were a lot of photos of Anne at many different ages, photos of her family and friends, and photos of the secrete apartment she lived in for 18 months, all with captions and labels. I think these pictures were very accurate and are useful for helping children comprehend the Holocaust, the second World War, and all that the Nazis did to the people. In addition, the emotion and facial expressions on the faces of the people in the illustrations were very accurate and could help show more create a sad, scary, happy or any other type of mood. Finally, this book gave just the facts and helped the readers think about such an intense topic in a leveled way. There was no bias in the text and nothing was offensive. I also enjoyed that the author did include quotes straight from Anne Frank such as, “Memories mean more to me than dresses.” This made the story and text much more authentic than just having a retelling of her life. Overall, this was a great book and is very useful to teach about such a hard topic in history. show less

"A Picture Book of Anne Frank" is a heavy biography of Anne Frank in picture book form. Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl forced into hiding during World War II. The story takes you through her experience in hiding, being caught and sent to camps, to her eventual passing. It continues with her father being reconnected with her diary and publishing it, for the world to get a first-hand gimps of what millions of Jews experienced during World War II.

I really enjoyed this book. Stories from the Holocaust always got my attention when I was in late elementary school. The book tells Anne's story beautifully and the illustrations help capture the reader's attention. I would reccomend this book to mature children and adults. This was a good show more educational read for me.

This book would pair really nicely with a lesson over World War II or the Holocaust. I would reserve it for more mature elementary grades, though. Fourth and fifth graders should be able to handle the heavy content just fine. After reading the biography I would have my students write a diary entry about what it was probably like to live in hiding from Nazis. show less

I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons. First, the illustrations in the book capture Anne Frank's life perfect. For example, the contrast of the pictures in black and white and the pictures in color were a standout feature that complimented the text very well. A black and white image of this quote in the entranceway of a concentration camp is depicted in a small square on the page. In the background of these same pages the reader can see images of people being ushered into train cars with their belongings and then again herded inside the camps with their hair shaved and all wearing the same drab clothing.They help children visualize Anne throughout her life. Second, the message of the book was another thing I liked about the book. show more I believe the message of the book is stick with family through the triumphs and struggles because family is forever. The book really shows the reader what Anne Frank's life was like and how she stuck with her family especially at the concentration camps. The book accurately depicts the important history and historical events of the holocaust that we teach should teach children. show less

This book made the past come to life. The pictures in this book brought perspective of the brutal history of Jews during world war 1. Anne Frank and her family built a secret apartment where they lived hidden by a bookshelf to hide from the Nazi's. They survived for awhile until the Nazi's finally found them taking them to camps where they eventually died from disease. Anne kept a diary of her experiences that was later published into a book. Author Adler did an amazing job capturing Anne Frank's perspective of the war allowing us to put ourselves in her shoes and experience the hate Jews endured during that time.

Although this book is a little outdated (published in 1994), the sad facts presented here are still true. I recently engaged my third grade students in a discussion about Anne Frank and I realized there wasn't a book in our library that featured her. I would definitely order this book: the illustrations are age-appropriate, and the narrative is both compelling and full of facts. This is a great first book featuring Anne Frank. I only wish it included at least some real photographs.