cover image Anne Frank, the Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography

Anne Frank, the Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography

Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, Hill and Wang, $30 (160p) ISBN 978-0-8090-2685-2

The team that created the bestselling The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation reunites to produce a stunning biography of Anne Frank, a book as historically rigorous as it is personally engaging. The story begins with the youths of Anne's parents, Otto and Edith, then traces the family's trajectory through WWI, into WWII, and finally beyond it to Otto's postwar activities and his death in 1980. Anne's childhood is portrayed against the background of the Depression and the rise of Nazism. The narration mixes historical background and informative "snapshots" of events like Germany's Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Kristallnacht, and the concentration camps, with details about the Franks and their household. Personality and life are added not just through Anne's oft-quoted diary but other contemporary memoirs and narratives—all listed in a bibliography—along with a chronology of world events and Anne's life. The combination of history, memoir, and richly detailed graphic representations creates a powerful whole, a beautiful and important graphic novel that will be enjoyed by adults and children alike. (Sept.)