When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

“When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary” by Alice Hoffman delves into Anne’s life before she went into hiding, yet the experiences are still harrowing and strike a nerve in the fabric of society.

Anne’s life is pretty good overall. She has a family, including a loving father, a mother who can often be hard on her, but who loves her all the same, a sister, Margot, and a grandmother, whom she calls Oma. Their life is average, but it’s worthwhile. Until one day when life begins to change. Jews begin to have restrictions put on them, and while Anne’s family never really placed so much emphasis on their Judaism, they find that they are looked at no differently than those whose observances are strikingly different. Little by little, people around them begin to look at them in a changed light, treat them differently, and not accept them as equals. They are made to register with the government, and while it isn’t billed as “keeping track” of them, it is allowing the government to know exactly where each and every Jew lives, who lives with them, and more.

As their lives begin to unravel and they lose confidence that they will find a way out of the country to safety, Anne and her family try to remain calm to get through it, to see their way to their futures, but their world looks bleaker with each passing day.

In this fictionalized telling of Anne’s life before she and her family went into hiding, we learn how the world is not always so pleasant and welcoming. People can be viciously terrible, and the world may do nothing to protect you. Finding ways to protect yourself and those you love is difficult and troubling, and while one may feel alone at times, if one is to stop sharing these stories and trying to find ways to overcome the problems, it may keep happening. As Anne’s mother tells her at one point, “We are doing something. We’re refusing to believe the story they’re telling about us.” The Holocaust, and Anne’s experience leading up to it must never happen again, and this book is one way to understand how seeing it coming and stepping up to try to do something about it before it does is of vital importance to who we are as individuals and as a society. The back matter of the book provides more insight into the reality that was the Holocaust and how Anne’s family was captured, leaving only her father alive when the war was over.

What worked: Poignant glimpse into what might have been Anne Frank's life before the diary. Readers see Anne from age 10 as being curious about the world around her; her close relationship with her grandmother; a complicated relationship with her mother and sister; and a first romantic relationship.

Anne witnesses how the Netherlands are taken over by the Nazis and the things she loved-like skating, going to the ice cream parlor, and going out at night are taken from them. Even a blooming first relationship is cut short by the horrors of war. Through it all, she still has hope that things will get better.

Hoffman also weaves in storytelling and symbolism of the magpie that follows Anne and lives in a tree next to her apartment and the black moths that slowly flutter outside and later are everywhere right before her father hides the family from the Nazis.

Anne's diary showed the world not only the ugliness of the world but also the kindness and even bits of beauty. In this novel, readers see Anne before she and her family are hidden away from the Nazis. This is the young teen who loves things like skating on a pond with her friends, has crushes, fights, and then makes up with her sister, and even questions what's happening around her.

This latest novel on Anne Frank is one that is a must-read. There's a scene where Anne stands before a window and longs for a yellow journal. Her father surprises her with it on her birthday. From that journal, Anne writes down her experiences and hopes—never knowing that her life would go on in her words long after her brutal death at one of the concentration camps.

Haunting story of Anne Franke before she wrote her diary. Highly recommend for classroom libraries. Also perfect for discussions on the Holocaust.