Anne Frank: A Hidden Life [Paperback]

Mirjam Pressler (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Anne Frank's diary gives readers an intimate portrait of her life in hiding. But what else do we know about Anne? What did others think of her? Here, surviving friends and neighbors describe Anne as a child, and the people who protected her during the war describe the Secret Annex. Sections from Anne's diary that were recently made public give readers a closer look at the girl who wrote, "I want to go on living even after my death!"

"With balance and poignancy, Anne Frank: A Hidden Life succeeds in conveying both the individuality of the most famous Holocaust victim and the enormity of the tragedy that consumed her."
-The Horn Book

"This astonishing biography succeeds in delivering fresh and provocative insights. Incisive and vigorously imaginative..."
-Publisher's Weekly, starred review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many young people first encounter the terrible reality of the Nazi Holocaust through reading the diaries of Anne Frank. Teens who cherish that unforgettable literary and emotional experience will be fascinated by the additional insights in Anne Frank: A Hidden Life. Mirjam Pressler draws on her background as editor of Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition to explain the three versions of the Anne Frank diaries, to discuss newly revealed material, and to speculate on Anne's spiritual and sexual development during her three-year confinement in the secret annex. Pressler's title takes on a double meaning as she analyzes Anne's "hidden life," the "much deeper, purer, and finer" self the young girl wrote about wistfully but concealed from the others with a façade of cheerful outspokenness. Pressler also uses the eyewitness testimonies of the Frank family's helper Miep Gies, Anne's school friend Hanneli Goslar, and Otto Frank's stepdaughter Eva Schloss to expand our understanding of the other inhabitants of the Annex and to follow them through those unfathomable seven months in the death camps.

Anne Frank's remarkable diaries have been the subject of many other books, from learned essays to historical studies to picture books and poetry. Teens with an interest in the life of this cultural icon may also want to read Anne Frank: The Biography, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, and Memories of Anne Frank. (Ages 11 and older) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In a starred review, PW wrote, "While the tragically short life of Anne Frank has elsewhere been carefully documented and inventively researched, this astonishing biography succeeds in delivering fresh and provocative insights." Ages 12-up. (Aug.)n

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (August 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141312262
• ISBN-13: 978-0141312262
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #456,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( F ) > Frank, Anne
  • #61 in Books > Children's Books > History > Holocaust

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The hidden psyche of Anne Frank, May 8, 2000

By 

K. Baron (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Anne Frank: A Hidden Life (Hardcover)

In this book the author seems to have magical insight into Anne's hidden thoughts and desires. She also interprets one of Anne's passages to mean that Anne was describing her first orgasm during a petting session with Peter. I read all editions available as well as the newly released "missing pages" and I did not draw this same conclusion. She also believes that Peter did not love Anne. How would she know? I did find interesting little known information about the other members in hiding and do trust facts provided by eyewitnesses (Miep Gies for example)But overall I would recommend Melissa Muller's biography over this book. The biography provides a great deal more detailed facts about Anne's life and does offer a new theory as to who betrayed the Franks. Pressler's book is more like a psychoanalysis of Anne Frank's mind than a detailed account of her life.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wondering Around, April 24, 2008

By 

R. Chaffey "beckahi" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anne Frank: A Hidden Life (Hardcover)

With so much that has been written about Anne Frank it can be difficult to find a new angle on a life cut short. "Anne Frank: A Hidden Life" by Mirjam Pressler is not a straightforward biography, but rather a sketch that includes aspects of Anne's life, her diary entries, and the author's wonderings as well. She has set a wide net to fill a small canvas, and the writing too often reads like extended (and sometimes repetitive) footnotes.

There is not a lot of new information that is given in "Hidden Life". For anyone who has read beyond the diary (like Miep Gies memoir or Carol Ann Lee's exceptional "The Hidden Life of Otto Frank"), much of what Pressler relates is not new. What she does add to the Anne Frank lexicon, as an expert on Anne's life and editor of the definitive edition of her diary, is her own thoughts and analysis into life within the Secret Annex. She tries to round out the lives of the other occupants and of their helpers but there is too little firsthand information to do so. The best point she makes is in examining Anne's desire and craft as a writer: one must remember that Anne began editing her diary for eventual publication and may have crafted her fellow Annex companions into characters, or sometimes even caricatures, and may not have captured the real person.

It is indeed a shame that Anne Frank's life was cut short, and while we have her voice, it would be nice to know these people beyond her words; (and a better attempt was made by Barry Denenberg in "Shadow Life", where he crafted a diary that Margot Frank might have kept while in hiding). That seems to be the point Mirjam Pressler makes, but "Anne Frank: A Hidden Life" doesn't deliver on that premise. At best, it is a companion piece to the diary for young adults (its targeted audience) that expounds upon that final sentence "Anne's diary ends here" with details of her life before and after going into hiding.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I could hardly put it down., April 25, 2000

By 

Kathleen A. Baxter (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anne Frank: A Hidden Life (Hardcover)

This is a fine, well -written account of the famous diary and the writing thereof, including information that I have never seen before. She describes exactly what Anne used for her diary (the famous red and white checked book did not begin to hold it all), and describes life in hiding as it must have been for all of the people in the Secret Annexe, not just Anne. The author speculates on Anne's writing and some of the choices she made--to have a romance with Peter, for instance. I recommend this highly to anyone who loves Anne Frank, but it is definitely for older young adults and adults as opposed to children.