Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography
By Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, 160 pp. Hill and Wang, 2010. $16.95.
From the authors of the bestselling The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation (Jacobson was executive editor of Marvel Comics, Colon a former artist at Marvel and DC) comes this full biography, stretching beyond Anne Frank’s diary. The Anne Frank House in the Netherlands surveyed 5,000 educators, who picked this format as a preferred teaching method. And there’s nothing dumbed down about it. The authors developed their initial storyline from a synopsis the size of a phone book, then had each draft meticulously checked by the House’s staff. The result: a crisp, remarkably evocative rendition of Frank’s full— if ultimately tragic—life that speaks without condescension to kids as well as adults.
Originally published in the April 2011 issue of World War II. To subscribe, click here.