Illustration by James Bennett from Dream by Susan V. Bosak

Anne Frank got a diary for her
13th birthday. The diary chronicles the events of her life from June 12, 1942 until its final entry of
August 1, 1944.

During World War II, under Hitler,
the rights of Jews were taken away. Frank and her family went into hiding in a crowded little apartment over an office building to avoid being taken to a concentration camp. Frank wrote in detail about life in the apartment.

Then someone told the authorities where the family was hiding. Everyone was taken away to a concentration camp and the family was split up. Anne died before her 16th birthday.

The only member of her family to survive was her father, who later got her diary published. It has become one of the top selling books of all time.

Wrote Anne Frank in her diary:

"I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness; I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too; I can feel the sufferings of millions; and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.. I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out."

"I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

Recommended Reading:

A Picture Book of Anne Frank by David A. Adler and Karen Ritz (illus). Holiday House, 1994. A sensitive, age-appropriate introduction to Anne Frank's life from her early years in Germany to her time in the Amsterdam attic to her death at Bergen-Belsen.

Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary by Ruud van der Rol and Rian Verhoeven. Puffin, 1995. In this photographic remembrance, lengthy captions describe not only who is in the photos, but also the circumstances under which each photo was taken. Framed pages expand on the politics of the time. The main narrative includes carefully chosen quotations from Anne Frank's diary.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Bantam, 1993. Since its initial publication in 1947, this insightful journal has become a fitting memorial to a gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. This new edition contains 30% more material than the original edition, revealing the complexity of who she was and the circumstances in which she found herself.

Teaching the Diary of Anne Frank by Susan Moger. Scholastic Professional Books, 1999. A sensitive, well-researched resource that provides the information and materials teachers need to share The Diary of Anne Frank in the classroom and place it in the context of the Holocaust. Includes discussion questions, ideas for journal writing, documents, timelines, poetry, photos, and more.

The Story of Anne Frank by Brenda Ralph Lewis. DK Publishing, 2001. An engaging, Level 3 introduction to Anne Frank's life, death, and legacy, offering a 50/50 picture-to-text ratio.