Product Description

From July 1942 until August 1944, a young girl named Anne Frank kept a diary. Keeping a diary isn't unusual. Lots of girls do. But Anne's diary was unique. It chronicled the two years she and her family spent hiding from the Germans who were determined to annihilate all the Jews in Europe.

In this sensitive and thoughtful introduction to the Holocaust and to the life of one of its best known victims, acclaimed author Johanna Hurwitz deftly evokes the background of World War II while capturing the unforgettable spirit and tragedy of Anne's life.

From July 1942 until August 1944, a young girl named Anne Frank kept a diary. Keeping a diary isn't unusual. Lots of girls do. But Anne's diary was unique. It chronicled the two years she and her family spent hiding from the Germans who were determined to annihilate all the Jews in Europe.

In this sensitive and thoughtful introduction to the Holocaust and to the life of one of its best known victims, acclaimed author Johanna Hurwitz deftly evokes the background of World War II while capturing the unforgettable spirit and tragedy of Anne's life.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #257291 in Books
• Brand: Harper Collins Publishers
• Published on: 1999-12-31
• Released on: 1999-12-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .11 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Features

• Made with the Best Quality Material with your child in mind.
• Top Quality Children's Item.

From School Library Journal
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
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Skillfully written. A worthy introduction." -- Booklist

About the Author
Johanna Hurwitz is the author of over five dozen books for young readers. She is the recipient of many state awards, including the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the Kentucky Bluegrass Award, and the Garden State Children's Choice Award. She lives in Great Neck, NY.

Johanna Hurwitz always knew she wanted to be a writer. She started by telling stories to her brother, who is six years her junior, and she's been making up stories ever since. Born and raised in New York City, she earned her B.A. degree from Queens College and went on to receive a master's in library science from Columbia University. She embarked on a career as a children's librarian, but she never forgot that one day she wanted to write books, too.

She worked at the New York Public Library and in a variety of other public and school library positions. She also taught graduate courses in children's literature and storytelling at Queens College. When she and her husband, Uri -- a college teacher and writer -- and their children, Nomi and Beni, moved to Long Island, she continued her library work.

Although she had told original stories to her children, it was not until they were well along in school that Mrs. Hurwitz actually began to write down her stories. That's why, when children ask her how long it takes to write a book, she replies that her first, Busybody Nora, took her whole life.

But since then she has been writing with regularity, portraying with humor and sympathy the everyday incidents that are so important to children. She is particularly fond of seven- to nine-year-olds, because they are "so very open and get excited about small things," and she enjoys writing realistic fiction for and about them.

That these youngsters are equally fond of Mrs. Hurwitz's books is obvious. She has received many child-chosen state awards, including the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush Award, the Kentucky Bluegrass Award, the Garden State Children's Choice Award, the West Virginia Children's Book Award, and others.

In recent years, Johanna Hurwitz has crisscrossed the United States from Juneau, Alaska, to Jackson, Mississippi, and from San Diego, California, to St. Albans, Vermont. She has even spoken abroad, from Morocco to Mozambique and from Portugal to Nicaragua. On these trips she has met and spoken to schoolchildren, teachers, librarians, and parents. She has made many new friends and has often brought home new ideas for her next book.

In her own words...

I've been writing ever since I was a youngster. I told stories to my little brother and I wrote stories in blank notebooks that I kept under my bed. I've saved one of my early stories because a classmate illustrated it for me. Looking at it now, I see all my spelling mistakes and repetitious writing style. Luckily, my writing improved as I grew older.

When I was ten, I wrote a poem that was published in a Connecticut newspaper.BOOKS

For me to read a book is still
And always will be quite a thrill.
For me to read a book is like
A boy when he rides his new two wheel Pike.
And when a bird comes north in spring
It's natural for him to sing.
I like to read books of science, fiction and mystery,
Books of poems, nature, and history.
And what is more, I'll read until I'm grown,
And then I'll write books of my own.

I was paid 50 cents. And my writing career had officially begun.

My parents told me that I should plan a second career as well. I decided to become a children's librarian. That way I was surrounded by books at work as well as at home.

BUSYBODY NORA was published in 1976. Since then, I've been writing one or two books a year. My ideas come from everywhere: my husband, children and cats have all given me ideas even when they aren't aware of it. But I also get ideas from keeping my eyes open: when I worked as a school librarian, I discovered that the third graders were studying about the food chain. That gave me the idea to write MUCH ADO ABOUT ALDO about Aldo Sossi who becomes a vegetarian to protest the consumption of crickets by the chameleons in his classroom; on vacation in Vermont, I met a woman who owned a llama and I began writing about Adam Fine who had A LLAMA IN THE FAMILY. My son was in a class with several boys named David and I wrote about David Bernstein who changed his name to Ali Baba Bernstein. My daughter started babysitting and I wrote about TOUGH-LUCK KAREN and her babysitting experiences. THE RABBI'S GIRLS is based on stories my mother told me about her childhood as one of a family with seven sisters. ("Seven sisters? No one Will believe that," my editor said. And so to make my story more realistic, I lopped off one of my aunts when I wrote the book.) An acquaintance told me that her two grandchildren were coming to spend the summer with her in our community and I got the idea for THE HOT & COLD SUMMER.

I never thought my stories would develop into so many series of books. However, once I create a new character they take on a life of their own. I find them talking to me in my imagination and telling me things that I should write about them. That's why after I wrote FARAWAY SUMMER, I suddenly felt the need to write DEAR EMMA. And now still another book about Dossi Rabinowitz and her friend Emma Meade is taking shape in my head. What's going to happen? What will the book be called? Those are surprises waiting for me to discover.

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Customer Reviews

another breath taking book for such an intimate topic
This is another book about Anne Frank that I get the chance to read. Although there are many biographies about this wonderful human being, this book is the closest one that can answer the questions that all Anne Frank fan has. I did for many years just read the Diary over and over but I wanted more! This book is definetly more! It tells you more about the relationship she had with her family and the rest of the people in hiding. This is a girl who could hardly see the light coming from her window and the only green thing that she could think about was a huge chestnut outside the Annex. This book describes this little things that she cherished and that she no longer had....her freedom. She didn't either had freedom of speach inside the Annex due to the critics about her attitude. This book develops more information about why Anne acted like she did and why she had an open opinion about everything. It also gives you a bigger idea of why she didn't like her mother and develops more about her childhood around her family and her friends. I hope all readers that enjoy the Anne Frank writings will enjoy this description about her persona. Is a total different thing to read her diary knowing more about her life and early aspirations. ENJOY!

Anne Frank Life in Hidding
The summary on this book is this is a book about Anne Frank. It tells about her life and her diary. Also it tells about her troubles and her problems. In this book, people are put into concentration camps and poision gas room by the Nazis. If you don't know who the Nazis are, they are a type of group that dosen't like Jews.
Anne was born in 1856.Anne was very adventrous. She liked to write, so at the age of 13, her mom and dad bought her a diary. Anne was very talkative. Sha always got into trouble.
Some problems that she faced is hidding.She was hidding from the Nazis. She was hidding with another family and a dentist. Also another problem she faced is physical changes.
Some ways she solved her problems is by writting in her diary. In her diary she would write about things that were going on in her life. Another way she solved her problem is by hidding. This is a problem solver because if she didn't she would be in a concentration camp.

Anne frank
This book is filled with the ups and downs of Anne Frank, how she handles her problems, how life was being Jewish and happy memories of her life. It tells how Anne was a very energetic girl who had fun with friends and was very social. However, it also describes how hard life was for her, being Jewish, going into hiding and being captured and being transported to different concentration camps. Anne was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt Germany. During her time in hiding she kept all her secret thoughts in a diary that her mother and father (Edith and Otto Frank) gave to her the day she turned 13(June 12, 1942). Anne had a very strong bond with her father and sister (Margot) but not as strong with her mother but she still loved her dearly. This is a wonderful book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested about Anne Frank.