Rating: 
Summary: Stories from a gifted writer who was never allowed to be...
Review: Also published under the title "Tales from the House Behind," this is a collection of juvenile/young adult stories that Anne Frank worked on during her years in hiding in the annex with her family and fellow fugitives. It proves that this young girl had an incredible gift for writing, and that had she lived she probably would have been received the Noble Prize for Literature. Her stories were often candid indictments of her own family life, such as Kitty, which tells the story of a young girl who day-dreams and a mother who wants her child to listen and obey rather than dream. Anne's essays show an in-depth understanding of human nature, surprising for one so young. This is a poignant book filled with fables, short stories, essays and even part of an unfinished novel. It's worth reading after you have read "The Diary of Anne Frank" simply because the diary will give you more insight to this amazing girl's life. However "Tales from the Secret Annex" stands on its own too, and like the diary should be on every school child's list of books to read.
Rating:
Summary: Stories from a gifted writer who was never allowed to be...
Review: Also published under the title "Tales from the House Behind," this is a collection of juvenile/young adult stories that Anne Frank worked on during her years in hiding in the annex with her family and fellow fugitives. It proves that this young girl had an incredible gift for writing, and that had she lived she probably would have been received the Noble Prize for Literature. Her stories were often candid indictments of her own family life, such as Kitty, which tells the story of a young girl who day-dreams and a mother who wants her child to listen and obey rather than dream. Anne's essays show an in-depth understanding of human nature, surprising for one so young. This is a poignant book filled with fables, short stories, essays and even part of an unfinished novel. It's worth reading after you have read "The Diary of Anne Frank" simply because the diary will give you more insight to this amazing girl's life. However "Tales from the Secret Annex" stands on its own too, and like the diary should be on every school child's list of books to read.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written!
Review: Anne Frank must truly be a genius. Each of her tales have a lesson to be learned within each. Though these are her lesser known writings, but are still nicely crafted. It is a nice companion to her famous diary. Some of her stories are about her love for life. This also gives you an idea of what she really wanted to do in the hiding place: be free.
Rating: 
Summary: Good companion book for the famous diary
Review: Had this been a collection of stories and essays by anybody else, I would have thought it was nothing special. But having read the Diary of Anne Frank first, the stories and essays make so much more sense. You can just see her whiling away the dull moments of the life in the secret annex, honing her writing skills. It is easy to see her skills as a writer increase from story to story. But even more interesting is to read the messages contained within her works. The writing skills she displays are obviously that of a teenager, although much better than most people her age. But the real value of these pieces are the insights which she brings to them; her life experiences and her approach to life's big questions. The last essay in the collection is entitled, "Why" and seems to sum up her short life. Read this book, but only after you read the Diary so the essays will be meaningful.
Rating:
Summary: Good companion book for the famous diary
Review: Had this been a collection of stories and essays by anybody else, I would have thought it was nothing special. But having read the Diary of Anne Frank first, the stories and essays make so much more sense. You can just see her whiling away the dull moments of the life in the secret annex, honing her writing skills. It is easy to see her skills as a writer increase from story to story. But even more interesting is to read the messages contained within her works. The writing skills she displays are obviously that of a teenager, although much better than most people her age. But the real value of these pieces are the insights which she brings to them; her life experiences and her approach to life's big questions. The last essay in the collection is entitled, "Why" and seems to sum up her short life. Read this book, but only after you read the Diary so the essays will be meaningful.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Talent and Insights
Review: Having read Anne Frank's famous Diary, I chose to read this volume as well, almost a companion volume to the first. Her diary mentions her writing efforts and it is fun to read them here in their entirety. The quality of the stories increases immensely as we go from one to the next, proving the old axiom that the only way to improve your writing is to practice. But what is really amazing is the insights this young girl was able to bring to her stories. Several seem to be quite plain on the surface yet have an underlying message or theme. Most of them are understandably coming-of-age stories. In addition, we get a little more insight into her life in the attic and those people that surrounded her during that time.If you enjoyed reading Anne Frank's Diary, then you will also enjoy this volume of stories.
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Summary: The Review
Review: I find this book to be very inspiring because this young girl, known as Anne, kept a record of her daily life and became famous. It is very unfortunate that her fame came after her tragic death, but she is still remembered to this present day. I strongly recommend this book to anyone because it is a good example of how our daily lives can bring us good things which can change other peoples' lives as well as your own. This book is mainly about how this young girl Anne Frank lived her life and also dealt with hardships in her life. This book is a reminder that anyone, no matter what the age, can have an impact on the life of others. I think that this book is a good example of how some one can live through such a horrible event, like Anne did during the holocost. I really hope that you decide to read this book after what you have read from me!
Rating:
Summary: Great stories and reminicenses from a talented young girl.
Review: I truly enjoyed Anne Frank's Diary, now I have had the privilege to read her tales. A talent in it's purest form. I believe it was Anne Frank who said she wanted to be famous and/or to live on after her death, and of course she has in so many ways. Her diary has sold millions upon millions of copies around the world, her story told in a broadway play, countless films and documentary's.To me it looks like Anne has gotten her wish, she has lived on, more than she'll ever know. I like so many other's have wondered what kind of person Anne Frank would have been if she had survived, of course we will never know, but her diary and her story's were left behind to be discovered and to be told to everyone around the world, what a good person we could have a had on this planet, a great and talented young girl who was taken away but not forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable stories for young and old alike.
Review: In her now famous Diary, Anne Frank said "I want to go on living even after my death". As of 1998, The Diary of Anne Frank had reached sales of 25 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages. (source: TIME, October 5, 1998). It has been required classroom reading for half a century now! In a way, her wish has come to pass.
This subsequent publication "Tales From The Secret Annex" combines short stories, reminiscences/vignettes, and even an unfinished novel to show us yet another dimension to this remarkable person. Reading these stories and little essays confirmed my personal opinion that Anne Frank was a childhood genius with unlimited potential to achieve anything she would have set her mind to. It's hard to imagine this thirteen year old girl writing with such depth and perception, while living in seclusion, terror and fear for her life. She was writing from her heart, not with an expectation of being published. And yet these stories shine with a polished brilliance, and a certain unforgettable quality. I read this book for the first time 8 years ago, and have returned to it now, remembering the stories as though I had read them just last week. My favorite is entitled "Kathy". In three short pages, Anne captures every emotion experienced by a kid who is misunderstood by her mother, assaulted by schoolyard bullies who mock and rob her and cause her to lose the gift she was bringing home to her mother. Here is how she ends her essay entitled "Give":
"If only our country and then Europe and finally the whole world would realize that people were really kindly disposed toward one another, that they are all equal and everything else is transitory!
Open your eyes... give of yourself, give as much as you can! And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! No one has ever become poor from giving! If you do this, then in a few generations no one will need to pity the beggar children anymore, because they will not exist!
There is plenty of room for everyone in the world, enough money, riches, and beauty for all to share! God has made enough for everyone. Let us all begin by sharing it fairly." (written March 26, 1944). Anne was sent to Bergen-Belsen, where some time during March 1945, she, her sister Margot and hundreds of other prisoners were stricken with typhus. Their captors, preoccupied with the advancing Allies, left them to die.
World... read her book!
Rating:
Summary: Something other then the diary
Review: Ok, so Anne's diary will almost always out shadow other stories shes written, and with good reason, but the stories here are rather well written. The 1st half of the book contains actuall stories she was writting, some short, some long, and part of an unfinished novel. The 2nd half of the story is memories of events that happend to her in her life that she wrote down.
Anyone who likes her diary should really give her stories a read.
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