Description
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. You wanted to travel, you wanted to grow up, you wanted to be beautiful, you wanted to fall in love. You wanted so much that your heart broke in half, but half a heart is better than none, and your heart is stronger than anyone would guess. You remember everything.
Review
The story of Anne Frank is one that is known by many people, from her famous diary. When We Flew Away is set in the Netherlands, from 1940 -1942, in the years before she was in hiding, and before the years that her diary were based on.
This is a fictional story of what the world of Anne Frank may have looked like, and with research and co-operation from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, it really does give a wonderful insight into life during this terrible time.
The sense of who Anne really was shines through in this story. She was determined, intelligent, bossy, head strong, and a dreamer, and she wanted more out of life than others her age. She wanted freedom, and she was sure that one day she would go to America and have a wonderful life. Anne always saw that there was hope in the world, but with the increasing occupation and brutality of the Nazi’s in her adopted homeland, even she starts to see the evil in the world.
The relationships that Anne had with family and friends are central to this story, including those with her sister Margot, who was unlike Anne in many ways, her mother, with whom she often did not see eye to eye with, and her beloved father and Oma, who seemed to be the only ones who really understood her.
Her love of books and her inquisitive mind is evident throughout, and the author takes us on a lyrical journey of how Anne might have seen the world at this time and reminds us of all the harshness and futility of war.
It is a story that can be read by any secondary student.
