When We Flew Away' A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary - by Alice Hoffman- 2024 - 192 Pages

 When We Flew Away :A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary - by Alice Hoffman- 2024 - 192 Pages

Alice Hoffman works I have so far read:

The Marriage of Opposites- 2015

"Everything My Mother Taught Me" - 2016

"The Book Store Sisters" -2022

The Foretelling - 2006

"Conjure" - 2014

Aquamarine- 2001

The Ice Queen - 2006

Property Of -1977

Skylight- 2007

The Invisible Hour 2023

Rules of Magic- 2017

Practical Magic - 1997

Faithful- 2016

When We Flew Away' A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary - 2024

The story begins in May of 1940. About to be eleven-year-old Anne is living in Amsterdam with her parents Edith and Otto as well as her 14-year sister Margot, and her grandmother 

 Her father had been a wealthy banker in Germany, but after the rise of antisemitism and the Nazi Party he moved his family to what they all thought was the safety of the Netherlands, one of the most tolerant countries in Europe. 

Anne and her sister attend schools that have both Jewish and Christian students and their lives are comfortable and happy. Margot is considered the beautiful sister (Anne doesn't mind) while Anne is the dreamer. As the Nazi Army begins its march across Europe, Otto regrets not sending the girls to England and is desperately trying to get visas for the family to go to America. But after the Germans invade the Netherlands, all hope of visas seems lost and there is no escape for the family. All Jews must now register with local governments, people they considered friends and classmates become enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi Party, men are being arrested and sent to concentration camps, and their rights are increasingly being taken away. Then the impossible happens. Nathan Strauss, Jr., an old friend of Otto's from New York City, writes to say all the paperwork for their visas in now in order. But once again their hopes for visas are shattered. There is some unexpected happiness for Anne as she meets a boy named Helmut, who's known as "Hello" because that's how he greets everyone. But Anne's happiness is short lived as Margot receives a notice that she's being called up for a "labor camp." The family has no choice, they leave under cover of darkness and go into hiding.

I was completely drawn into Hoffman's brilliant imagining of the life of Anne Frank Before she began her diary,  She loves to read, tries to keep optimistic and dreams of moving to California.

In a time when immigrants around the world are being vilified for all of societies problems there is a profound lesson in this wonderful book.

Alice Hoffman is the acclaimed author of over thirty novels for readers of all ages, including The Dovekeepers, The World That We Knew—winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize—The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, Incantation, The Foretelling, and most recently, The Invisible Hour. Her previous novels for Scholastic Press are Aquamarine, which was made into a major motion picture, Indigo, Green Witch, and Green Angel, which Publishers Weekly, in a boxed, starred review, called “achingly lovely.” She lives outside Boston. Visit her online at www.alicehoffman.com.