ANNE FRANK'S DIARY: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (graphic novel) by Anne Frank (author), Ari Folman, and David Polonsky (illustrator)
Graphic novel e-book edition published in 2018 by Pantheon.
Adapted into a graphic novel by Ari Folman.
The Diary of Anne Frank is certainly one of the most famous pieces of literature published in the last 100 years. The book the true diary of a young teen Jewish girl that was written as her family lived in a hidden apartment with two other families in an attempt to hide from the Nazi genocide. Before the war ended someone betrayed the families and Anne and almost everyone else in the apartment died in concentration camps shortly before the Nazi surrender.
Ari Folman adapted the diary into a graphic novel. In the afterword he notes that this was harder than one might expect. This graphic novel is 160 pages, but if he had simply illustrated the entire text of the diary it would have ended up being more than 3,000 pages! The challenge was to maintain the spirit of the print book while editing it down.
I think the book is beautifully illustrated. The moods, emotions, and simple displays of teen attitude come through loud and clear - and make her come to life.
The graphic novel is excellent, which is why it is too bad that it is on a lot of banned book lists. In Florida, Moms for Liberty asked for the book to be banned because of two scenes described like this by Katie Couric in an article: it features two “sexually explicit” scenes. In the first, Frank walks along a series of nude statues, and in another, she asks a friend if they want to show each other their breasts." The Moms argue that the book does not accurately teach about the Holocaust because of these pages - as if Nazi hatred were only aimed at Jews.
Anne Frank's diary has always been edited to make the story flow better, but it also was edited to take out some embarrassing details about the family. Those edits included Anne Frank's passing thoughts about possibly being interested in women as well as men. In the 1950s this might have been a deal breaker with potential publishers so it was left out. This is ironic considering that gays and lesbians were sent to the camps by the Nazis with just as much enthusiasm as Jews - but, that was the politics of the day.
It turns out that it also the politics of now. A teacher in Texas was fired because those pages were read aloud in her class.
It must be noted that even if Anne Frank were not Jewish, she would have been sent to the camps for being bisexual.
I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ANNE FRANK'S DIARY: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (graphic novel) by Anne Frank (author), Ari Folman, and David Polonsky (illustrator).
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| A page where Anne compares herself unfavorably to her sister. |
I think the book is beautifully illustrated. The moods, emotions, and simple displays of teen attitude come through loud and clear - and make her come to life.
The graphic novel is excellent, which is why it is too bad that it is on a lot of banned book lists. In Florida, Moms for Liberty asked for the book to be banned because of two scenes described like this by Katie Couric in an article: it features two “sexually explicit” scenes. In the first, Frank walks along a series of nude statues, and in another, she asks a friend if they want to show each other their breasts." The Moms argue that the book does not accurately teach about the Holocaust because of these pages - as if Nazi hatred were only aimed at Jews.
Anne Frank's diary has always been edited to make the story flow better, but it also was edited to take out some embarrassing details about the family. Those edits included Anne Frank's passing thoughts about possibly being interested in women as well as men. In the 1950s this might have been a deal breaker with potential publishers so it was left out. This is ironic considering that gays and lesbians were sent to the camps by the Nazis with just as much enthusiasm as Jews - but, that was the politics of the day.
It turns out that it also the politics of now. A teacher in Texas was fired because those pages were read aloud in her class.
It must be noted that even if Anne Frank were not Jewish, she would have been sent to the camps for being bisexual.
I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ANNE FRANK'S DIARY: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (graphic novel) by Anne Frank (author), Ari Folman, and David Polonsky (illustrator).
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