Non­fic­tion

Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pic­tures from the Archives of the Anne Frank House

Men­no Met­se­laar and Ruud van der Rol
  • Review
By – August 30, 2011
Met­ze­laar and van der Rol, staff mem­bers of the Anne Frank House, have select­ed over 250 pho­tographs to tell the sto­ry of Anne Frank and her fam­i­ly from 1925 – 1945 and after. The pho­tographs, along with suc­cinct cap­tions, explana­to­ry text, excerpts from the diary, quotes from Otto Frank, friends and wit­ness­es, and a glos­sary of terms, are pre­sent­ed in a beau­ti­ful, thought­ful, and effec­tive way, mak­ing this a per­fect intro­duc­tion and an invalu­able com­pan­ion to The Diary of a Young Girl. While the scope and con­tent is very sim­i­lar to Anne Frank, Beyond the Diary: A Pho­to­graph­ic Remem­brance, also by van der Rol in asso­ci­a­tion with the Anne Frank House, the small, com­pact size (only 612612 inch­es) and short, acces­si­ble pas­sages pro­vide read­ers with a muse­um like expe­ri­ence. This is a resource that belongs on the shelf along side the diary, and should be put into the hands of all stu­dents who study Anne Frank. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 10 & up.

Rachel Kamin has been a syn­a­gogue librar­i­an and Jew­ish edu­ca­tor for over twen­ty-five years and has worked at North Sub­ur­ban Syn­a­gogue Beth El in High­land Park, IL since 2008, cur­rent­ly serv­ing as the Direc­tor of Life­long Learn­ing. A past chair of the Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Award Com­mit­tee and past edi­tor of Book Reviews for Chil­dren & Teens for the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries News & Reviews, her arti­cles and book reviews appear in numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions. She has been a mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Library Association’s Sophie Brody Book Award Com­mit­tee since 2021.

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