Anne Frank and Me
Authors: Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld
This book poignantly expresses the horrors of the Holocaust in France
from a young girl's point of view. The switching between times, from the
twenty first century to 1942 is unsettlingly swift but her voice, which
emerges from her writings as Girl X, threads the two "chapters" together
to show that she is the same girl, despite her dissimilar surroundings.
Her loves and surroundings are the same in both places, yet it is so
bitterly striking how in one time, the girl is degraded and ultimately
murdered, and in the other she leads a careless life as a free American.
Nicole Burns captures us all in the beginning, as we see her swings from high to low, her obsessive crush with Jack, and of course her humorous writings as Girl X. Her detailed life and modern speech makes her at once familiar and identifiable, yet also conveying her easy, almost carefree life, later in such contrast to her life as a Jewish girl in the year 1942.
Her switch to 1942 is at once startling and unexpected. She is at once transferred to an almost identical life, where she is surrounded by familiar people: her best friend Mimi, her crush Jack (now Jacques), her little sister Little Bit and comically, her hated English teacher and principal as her parents. Slowly as she adjusts, we are led to see all the differences that do exist between the times, and follow her thoughts and feelings as the Jews are being more and more persecuted, identifying with her as she is barred from pleasures, separated from friends and school. As the fear grows, we find her writings as Girl X again, now defiantly stating her opinions and describing her life, left for whoever might see and read them.
As she moves to hiding, we are hit freshly by the horror and pain to which their lives have been degraded. The discovery by the Gestapo comes after a series of tragic events that shocks us as much as her. While she rides the train, she is left alone with her sister, and she struggles to take care of her as well as possible, even declining to escape to remain behind with her. Her meeting with Anne Frank happens directly before she arrives at the camp, and while we are heartened by it, it is chilling as well. The camp is the most dramatic and moving part of the entire book, as she follows her sister into the showers and death and remains by her side until it is all over.
Now, Nicole is switched back into the modern world, torn away from 1942 shaken and different. She grapples again while she remembers conflicting times and attempts to understand what has happened to her. She is left a changed and determined teenager, who's ready to change her world and especially her little sister, influenced by the terrifying glimpse she has had of the past.
This book is a moving masterpiece that brings tears to the eyes of the readers with its chilling rendering of the Holocaust and the frank and defiant Girl X who stands in the way of horror and demands justice. The placement of the heroine in both times enhances the feeling of attachment and involvement of the reader with the story. This is a book is a must, suitable for all ages yet recommended especially for teens.
Yarden Yavne
a 14-year-old teen
living in Israel
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