Behind the Bookcase: Miep Gies, Anne Frank, and the Hiding Place

by Barbara Lowell Narrated by Book Buddy Digital Media

Overview

Anne Frank's diary is a gift to the world because of Miep Gies.

One of the protectors of the Frank family, Miep recovered the diary after the family was discovered by Nazis, and then returned it to Otto Frank after World War II. Displaced from her own home as a child during World War I, Miep had great empathy for Anne, and she found ways-like talking about Hollywood gossip and fashion trends-to engage her. The story of their relationship-and the impending danger to the family in hiding-unfolds in this unique perspective of Anne Frank's widely known story.

"A historically accurate but relatively gentle introduction to the Holocaust for elementary-age readers."-Miriam Aronin, Booklist

"Author and illus­tra­tor do not deny Miep Gies's extra­or­di­nary hero­ism but frame it as a nat­ur­al response to the events of her life and the depth of her emo­tion­al involve­ment in her Jew­ish com­pa­tri­ots' tragedy."-Emily Schneider, Jewish Book Council

"A solid, additional title that can serve as an introduction to Holocaust literature."-Kathleen Isaacs, School Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"The story of their relationship (and the impending danger to the family in hiding) unfolds in this unique perspective of Anne Frank's widely known story." — James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review

Kirkus Reviews

2020-06-30
Sometimes history is chronicled in years. Sometimes it’s chronicled in minutes.

Almost anyone who has been to Hebrew school and many who haven’t know the basic facts of Anne Frank’s life: Her family hid for two years in a tiny annex. The Nazis found them, in spite of all their secrecy. Anne left a diary that ensured generations of readers would never forget the lives lost in the Holocaust. This new biography mentions each of those facts, but it focuses on smaller moments: Anne’s learning to walk, and then sashay, in high heels. Anne’s decorating the walls, comically, with pictures of chimpanzees. The book focuses in particular on Miep Gies, the gentile woman who helped them and then found the diary, and some of the details about her childhood are startling. An Austrian refugee, she was taken in during World War I by Dutch strangers who then raised her. (Gies and all of the historical figures depicted have pale skin.) The focus on details is both the book’s value and its chief flaw. It describes the moment-to-moment experience of life in an attic. Some of those moments are deeply moving, but some are mundane, a catalog of pots and pans and dirty clothes. Readers may find the book a bit less heartbreaking than others on Frank because the larger history is so familiar. The main facts have been told many times in many books. Toro’s illustrations, however, make every scene haunting, with dark shadows on the Franks’ faces, as though they’re covered with ash. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 83% of actual size.)

The story’s familiarity takes away only some of its power and its urgency. (historical notes, bibliography, suggested reading) (Picture book/biography. 7-11)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173064301
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

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