78. When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary. Alice Hoffman. 2024. 304 pages. [Source: Library] [mg historical fiction; mg fiction; world war II] [5 stars]
First sentence: There is a day you never forget, the day the whole world changes. When you close your eyes, light becomes dark, night never ends, beasts walk freely down the street, stars fall from the sky. You were young one second, and then you were far too old. You lived years in minutes and decades in weeks.
Premise/plot: When We Flew Away is historical fiction. It follows Anne Frank from the age of eleven to thirteen. The novel concludes with the family going into hiding.
My thoughts: I had not–for better or worse–stopped to think deeply about Anne’s life BEFORE the diary, before going into hiding, before the Holocaust. I’ve read biographies, of course, that covered her whole life. This is definitely an imaginative, creative spin on Anne Frank. There are a few concrete details that are known but oh-so-much that is not known and can only be speculated. Still I think it is helpful, perhaps, in showing that Anne was a real-life GIRL, a kid, someone with her whole life in front of her. The diary can be SO dramatic and melodramatic–and rightly so in many, many ways. I highly recommend the diary, no question. I DO think that EVERYONE should learn about the Holocaust. I cannot understand how some would “ban” Anne Frank OR other books about the Holocaust from school libraries. I just can’t.
© 2024 Becky Laney of Becky’s Book Reviews
