ANNE FRANK'S TALES FROM THE SECRET ANNEX

by Anne Frank ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 1983

One of the two notebooks Anne Frank left behind contained her now-famous Diary; the other contained an assortment of fables, stories, and musings--most of which appeared in The Works of Anne Frank (1959). In this new, slender volume, then (barely 100 pages of text), all 29 of those minor pieces are gathered together--eight of them appearing for the first time in hardcover. Among the new items are three charmingly naive attempts at fiction: ""Paula's Plane Trip,"" in which a German girl stows away on a plane during WW I and winds up in Russia for the war's duration; ""Jackie,"" a one-page anecdote about overcoming despair; and ""Cady's Life""--the disjointed tale of a Dutch girl who recovers from a car accident, finds first love, but is then disturbed by the arrival of the Nazis (and the fate of her Jewish friend Mary). The new non-fiction fragments include a few Secret Annex vignettes--two again illustrating the selfishness of the Van Daans, one a record of a typical Sunday in the hiding-place. (""Once we've eaten and washed up, I'm happy because another Sunday is gone."") And the most striking of the reprinted sketches are the gently, sweetly optimistic fairy-tales and parables, occasionally heart-breaking in their earnest simplicity. Still, though Anne Frank's fate and the Diary invest a few of her brief pieces with extra resonance, this remains a very slight collection--and no significant addition to the 1959 Works.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 1983

ISBN: 0307491641

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION