Anne Frank: A Life in Hiding - Hardcover

Reviews

Grade 3-6-- A moderately successful attempt to introduce Anne Frank to younger readers. This is factual, unlike Linda Tridenti's fictionalized Anne Frank (Silver Burdett, 1985), and with more narrative than Vanora Leigh's Anne Frank (Bookwright, 1985). Hurwitz gives a concise explanation of the political and economic background to the Holocaust and provides a map of Europe and a chronology. She ably covers the events of Anne's life before, during, and after the period covered by the Diary of Anne Frank , explaining the significance and importance of the Diary throughout the world. Her presentation is so objective, however, that it seems muted. Readers get only a glimpse of the personalities of the dwellers in the secret annex, while the tensions and strong feelings that Anne describes so vividly are glossed over. The accent is so much on the positive that Hurwitz describes Anne's time in Westerbork, a prison camp in Holland, as "almost like a holiday" after two years of close confinement. Still, this would be a first choice among the in-print biographies of Anne Frank for younger readers, and should lead its readers to read her Diary.
-Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
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