Great Graphic Novels for Teens
Folman, A. 2018. Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation. Ill. by David Polonsky. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. ISBN 9781101871799
2. Summary
Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation tells the life of Anne Frank and her family, the other residents that lived with them in the secret Annex, and the helpers who assisted them. The story begins with Anne’s life before living in the Annex, and when she received a journal for her birthday and named it Kitty. The story continues telling the life of her family and the other residents as they go through the struggles of having to live in secret. The story also goes into detail about Anne’s curiosity for the male/female body and her sexuality. Anne Frank and the other resident’s son, Peter van Daan, fall in love with each other, and Anne is hopeful for the future they can have together once they can step out of the secret Annex. Unfortunately, that day never comes as Anne’s family and the other residents were found and arrested, and it is believed someone told about the secret Annex. The helpers were also arrested, although Miep Gies and Elisabeth (Bep) Voskuijl were not. Anne Frank’s family and the other residents who were hiding were taken to different concentration camps. Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father was the only one to survive the concentration camps, and founded the Anne Frank Fonds Basel (AFF) and published the Diary of Anne Frank.
3. Discussion
I have always struggled with reading history, or any nonfiction text as I never find it interesting to read. This graphic novel, however, was very interesting to read and I found the illustrations to be very entertaining. This book would be great to use in a middle school classroom as students will be engaged as they read/ learn of Anne Frank. High school students may enjoy this graphic novel as well, but I believe they would be able to read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl without any trouble.
As discussed in our textbook, chapter 14 (Graphic Novels), some features the illustrator used were captions, dialog bubbles, thought bubbles, and the gutter separating the panels is clearly seen in some pages. Other pages in the book do not have gutter as they are written and drawn as a regular picture book rather than a graphic novel.
4. Connections
Even though this is a graphic novel, it still tells the true story of Anne Frank. This would be a great book to use for a lesson on compare and contrast. A teacher can have his/her students read the book Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl along with this graphic novel and the students can discuss the similarities and differences between both.
Students can also choose a diary entry for the book Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and rewrite it using illustrations and features such as the ones seen in this graphic novel.
Comments
Post a Comment