Anne Frank

Author:  Josephine Poole, 2005, Random House
Illustrator:  Angela Barrett

Anne Frank has become a name synonymous with Nazi persecution of Jews.  She posthumously became famous as a result of her diary being published, and the world saw how her Jewish family hid from the Nazis until they were caught.  I have read excerpts from her diary, as well as from other biographies about her, so I had a fair amount of background knowledge as I began reading this particular story.  I suppose it would be improper to say how much I enjoyed the story, given the horror and trauma Anne's family faced.  However, I can say that I learned more about her, the Nazis, and Nazi Germany from Josephine Poole's Anne Frank. 

I really enjoy studing World War II, and I noticed how accurate the facts were in this book.  The author does a fantastic job giving background information about Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of Germany.  She describes how Germany went from being one of the greatest nations in the world to the most embarrassed nation following World War I.  Hitler rose to power and began persecuting the Jews with the final goal of exterminating them from the world.  As a result, many Jews went into hiding for months and even years.  Anne Frank's family did so until they were discovered and removed.  Her diary was recovered and became a primary source of the horror she experienced.

This book had beautiful illustrations and enough information to teach the reader more about this time period.  I enjoyed reading the timeline in the back of the book to get a broader understanding of the other world events.  I would recommend this book to any teacher without the slightest reservation.  In fact, I believe this book should be in every library around the country.  It is appropriate for all age groups, and it teaches world history in an informative and interesting way.  

Yellow Star

Author:  Jennifer Roy, 2006, Marshall Cavendish Corporation

Yellow Star is another heartwrenching tale of an oppressed people overcoming adversity.  In this first-person account, a woman named Sylvia recounts her childhood as a Jew growing up in Poland during the second World War.  Sylvia is the name she took on as an American, whereas her birth name was Syvia.  Young Syvia and her mother, father, and sister, Dora, are forced to leave their home and relocate in Lodz, Poland, a Jewish internment camp when Syvia is five years old.  For the next five years, Syvia remained in hiding while her parents and sister worked, while narrowly escaping the clutches of Nazi soldiers who were searching for children.  Many of the Jewish children were sent to extermination camps under the guise of being taken care of by the Nazi government.  Due to the tireless efforts of her parents and only sister, Dora lives to see the rescue of her camp by the Russians, and her family is freed.  The author of this book is Syvia's niece, and she recorded her aunt's stories from telephone conversations and put them into a book.

I enjoyed this story because I consider it a primary source of history.  These words are straight from the mouth of someone who lived through one of the most horrifying times in the modern age, and they are a reminder to us of how evil people really can be.  I suggest teachers be mindful of the content and weight of this book before they assign it in their classrooms.  Seventh and eighth grades would be my ideal age suggestion, but one could easily extend that range into high school.  I definitely would not recommend this for any child under the seventh grade, simply because students need a concrete understanding of the events surrounding this time period, as well as the maturity that comes with older age.  Overall, this book was a somber account of a fairly recent occurrance, and it paints a picture of bleak optimism in a terrifying time.