Just when it seems that noth­ing new could pos­si­bly be writ­ten about Anne Frank, we are final­ly pre­sent­ed with a book spon­sored by the Anne Frank House that will be wel­comed by librar­i­ans, teach­ers, and par­ents alike. The authors of this well-writ­ten account have told Anne’s sto­ry clear­ly and mov­ing­ly, and have pro­vid­ed a large array of learn­ing enhance­ments to make the events of the time com­pre­hen­si­ble to today’s young read­er: maps, illus­tra­tions, pho­tographs, charts, con­cise yet infor­ma­tive his­tor­i­cal side­bars, doc­u­ment repro­duc­tions, fam­i­ly trees, and soci­o­log­i­cal explanations.

All about Anne is an excel­lent com­pan­ion to the diary itself, either as an intro­duc­tion or as a fol­low-up to fill in his­tor­i­cal detail; either way, the two make an excel­lent pair­ing. The book address­es Anne’s pre­war life, her years in hid­ing, her cap­ture, and her death in Bergen-Belsen. These events are placed with­in the broad­er con­text of the rise of Nazism and the his­to­ry of World War II. The text also touch­es on the post­war lives of Anne’s father and her child­hood friends.

This excel­lent resource is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ages 9 to 18, and is use­ful both in and out of the classroom.