Customer Reviews

Anna is Still Here

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Though there are different characters and plotlines, this book easily could have been the sequel to 'Hide and Seek.' The Markus family have survived by being in hiding and, once the War ended, wanted to stay in their home country of Holland. Thirteen year old Anna spent the War in hiding in the attic room of Daniel De Bree, who gives trumpet lessons, while her parents hid under the ground in a forest. The three of them are deeply affected by what they went through; Anna knows enough to know that Marga, her best friend, died in a concentration-camp, along with many of her relatives and other friends, but doesn't know all of the details she wants to know, and her parents refuse to provide any. They won't even tell her where they were during the War. Her father Simon is the more wound-up of her parents; for a very long time he won't let her display a picture of Marga they still have, since he doesn't want to see pictures of murdered people. He also yells a lot, since they haven't been a family in so long he isn't used to anything but being angry, tense, and suspicious. And both of them are angry and upset over Anna's new friendship with a German woman who lives near them, Frau Neumann, thinking that because of her German name she must be a Nazi. At first Anna thought so too, but soon found out Frau Neumann was also Jewish, and was so drawn to her because she looked exactly like her little daughter Fannie, right down to the birthmark on her forehead.

Because her parents are unable and unwilling to talk, Anna goes to Frau Neumann to talk about the War, being in hiding, missing people who are no longer there, the things they have to put up with from people who cannot fathom what they had to go through since they weren't there. She has a very quiet voice from being in hiding, since she barely spoke at all when Mr. De Bree was hiding her, and has been put into the fifth grade despite her age, due to the years of school she missed while in hiding. She can't even answer most of the questions the other students ask her, and she doesn't like to talk about it even if she does know. And even though Holland was one of the relatively friendly and safe places during WWII (there were more people willing to hide Jews and to be in the underground and Resistance than in a place like Poland or Hungary), there are still painful echoes of anti-Semitism to be dealt with.

Some people might find the ending unrealistic and contrived, but it's not like that sort of thing never happened in real life. There are enough sad real-life stories where no happy reunions between separated family members took place; why not have a happy ending when you're working with fictional characters, the kind of happy ending that too often didn't happen in real life?

I thought that "Anna Is Still Here" by Ida Vos was a moving novel that told a story of a Jewish family torn apart during the war and their struggle after the completion of the war. Ida Vos gave such realistic personality traits to each character that I found myself feeling a strange closeness to each. It seemed the more I read the more I felt each characters' emotions. I highly recommend this novel to anyone that enjoys piercingly realistic stories and also to those that like to read books that touch your heart and your soul and leave you a changed person.

I think the book( Anna Is Still Here) is a story that can inspire all different people it shows how hard a war can be for people and that it really affects their lives and how they live. I really liked this book it is one of my favorite books. I liked it because Anna shows that things aren't always going to end up perfect and that you can't judge somebody until you now more about them then their name.

Poor Anna, and her family. Anna's family made it through the Second World War and Hitler's Occupation only to find it hard to live again. You see part of her and her family died along with the millions of other Jews. It was not their bodies but their spirit.
Anna's father won't allow pictures of murdered friends and family to be placed in the home, Anna's mother pretends as if the war never happened. And Anna cannot make sense of what happened to her while hiding in an attic alone with no one else around.
This book strongly reminds everyone that while the war was over the sturggling of the opressed people never really ended. This can be seen in Anna's troubles at school, Her parents inability to face facts, and Mrs. Neumann's struggle to find her child.
While not everything can be answered in one children's book this book is a great choice for a school list or any family teaching their children about the aftermath of the holocaust. Not just the horrors that happened during it, but the problems the people faced afterward.

The war is over, and the Jews have come out of hiding in Europe. However, the trauma isn't over. Anna has been reunited with her mother and her father, but it's been a long time since they've been a family.

Anna is working to be more normal, even though that is hard, considering that she is two years behind in school, she is used to being scared of everything, and she doesn't have to hide in the attic anymore.

She strikes up a friendship with an odd older lady, who, Anna and her parents first assume to be German, but then find out that she is also Jewish and suffered under the Nazis as well.

This book is an incredibly fast read, but also striking in its language, which is largely unembellished, and serves its purpose well.

This is the new Netherlands, though, and there is hope for Anna and her family, as well as Anna's friend.

This book mainly tells us about the effects of the hiding to the survivors--Anna,her family and Mrs. Neuman--that were shown in their lives after hiding.This is the most attracting point of this book because it is what you cannot know from many other 'hiding' books. So don't expect it is a book like ANNE FRANK,THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL. Although I like this book pretty much, I enjoy THE UPSTAIRS ROOM by Johanna Reiss more. Please do not hasitate to buy these two books to see if you agree with me or not.

I really loved this book. I think it is a good book for junior high kids. It was very sad until the end and then I was very happy about what happened. I liked the characters in it they were great. It was a great book.

The book talks about how the Jewish people had still to suffer from the Holocaust although World War II was over and Holland has been liberated. The author reviews a survivor history in Holland and shows that the Holocaust was not over with the end of the war.
This book deals with a Jewish family, which parents were in a concentration champ in Poland during the war. Their daughter Anna was in hifing in Holland in an attic room for three lonely years. That was the past but now the family is reunited in Holland. The war is over, Anna goes to school again and the family has to get used to each other again.
Anna has to face several challenges. She is 13 years old but required to be a fifth-grader, because she was not in school for three years.Therefore she has to deal with a lot of questons all the other studens ask her. Nobody talks with her about what happened in the past, where her parents were and why she was in hiding by a man she didn't know. But one day she gets to know a woman, Mrs. Neuman is her name. she is Jewish too, but alos German. Mrs. Neuman was in hiding too in Holland. Anna and her talk a lot about what happened and share memories from their earlier lives. Anna reminds Mrs. Neuman of her missing daughter Fannie, who Anna tries to find. Mrs. Neuman, therefore, where the same dress everyday, which she wore when Fannie, her husband and her were torn apart years ago. The ideas of the book are represented in a well-done way. Although it's written in an easy language, I didn't get bored but could follow the story even better.
The realism of the characters is shown in a good way, because this story is based on a true story. Ida Vos looks beyond the ususal'happy' ending of survivor stories...to pose more thoughtful questions about the price of survival; her answers are hard-won and profoundly stirring.
The theme of the book is how the Jewish people were treated even when the Holocaust was said to be over. I think it's important that authors are writing about the situations during of after the war. If one thinks about that it's not even far away compared to the entire history, we should be interested what happened, although it might be really difficult to do so sometimes, we try to avoid cultural amnesia.

I think it was a good book. It was sad, but had a happy ending. It was about a jewish girl, named Anna, who was in hiding for 2 years. Her parents won't tell her where they were over the World War Two. Anna is having a hard time adjusting. There is a lady, who Anna, thinks is a Nazi. The so called Nazi turns out to be nice.

Anna Is Still here is the best book I have ever read. I was so hopeful that Mrs. Nueman would find Fannie and I was so happy when she did. I think that everybody should read this book.