Searching for Anne Frank: Letters from Amsterdam to Iowa

Reader reviewed by Bethany Vermillion, Non-Fiction Nymph

This non-fiction account of two girls-one in Iowa and one in Amsterdam, is an amazing comparison of the way life was for young people during the Holocaust. The title is a little deceiving, as it made me believe that the girls had been pen pals for a long period of time, when really they had only written two letters to each other. Transcripts of the letters are included as well as many pictures illustrating the girls' lives. Explains what happened to Anne during the time in hiding from a third person account (as opposed to Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, which is in first person) and the journey that Otto Frank had with getting Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl published. Most of the book focuses on the differences between the life in American at that time and Anne's life as a Jew in Europe.

I thought that this was a wonderful book. It made me want to read Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl all over again. Excerpts of her diary are found throughout Searching for Anne Frank. This would be a wonderful book to read with a sixth grade class (it is not graphic, even though it is a graphic subject) and then compare and contrast the two girls. I was able to learn a lot about Margot, Meip (the woman who hid the Franks), and other background players in Anne's life. Overall, I thought this was a fabulous book that included fabulous pictoral history as well. This book would be appropriate for sixth grade and up. May not want to read it with younger children because of the nature of the subject, but it handles the topic very tastefully.