by Ari Folman
Pantheon Books, 2018. 151 pages. Graphic Novel
Like many other children past and present, Anne Frank poured out her thoughts and feelings onto the pages of her diary. Addressing it as a friend, "Dear Kitty," soon became her most trusted confidante when Anne and her family, along with others, went into hiding from Nazi occupiers in World War II Amsterdam. "Dear Kitty's" pages hold Anne's deepest thoughts, feelings, frustrations, and detail her life in the "Secret Annex" until her capture.
The best-selling book is given the graphic novel treatment, with illustrator David Polonsky bringing Anne's spirit to life with reverent celebration. I read DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL as a teen, and felt kinship to her spunky personality. It's not for nothing her diary has captivated generations; her diary is a window into her world, once so happy and safe, suddenly plunged into darkness and danger, and to the millions of other innocents like her who suffered in the Holocaust. This graphic novel adaptation is a master work of capturing so much in comparatively so few illustrations - Anne's tumultuous relationship with her mother, the pangs of teenagehood, the crushing anxiety clashing with her fiery spirit - Polonsky has pulled off herculean feat in portraying it all.
Whether or not you've read the original, treat yourself with this adaptation.
MW
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