“There in the meadow, among the flowers and the grass, beneath the wide-open sky, Krista is content. Gone is her exhaustion, gone are the market and the people; she thinks and dreams only of the present. If only she can have this every day, a whole fifteen minutes of doing nothing, alone with God and nature.”
Anne Frank, Tales from the Secret Annex
Title: Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex: A Collection of Her Short Stories, Fables, and Lesser-Known Writings
Author: Anne Frank
Genres: Non-fiction, Short Stories, History, Classics
Pages: 209 (Hardcover)
Published: 1960
My Rating: ★★★★★
Read: 7/13/2022
Review:
It was wonderful revisiting Anne Frank’s writing. I’ve been meaning to read this since I read her diary in 2020. She was such an intelligent and introspective young woman. Reading fictional works by her gives even more insight into her mind. The fact that her novel goes unfinished serves as a good reminder of her fate. We are blessed to be able to read what she did complete along with her other short stories. A great addition to The Diary of a Young Girl!
Likes & Dislikes
What I liked:
- Anne Frank’s fictional works. As I mentioned above, it gives more perspective to who she was as a writer.
What I didn’t like:
- A few of the stories were also featured in her diary which made it feel repetitive. However, I don’t know if these were stories not included in the original publication. I know we have a more complete version going around nowadays. Either way, I understand that they also might be there to bring up the page count.
Afterthoughts:
I feel like this is an insultingly short review. The sad truth is that there isn’t a lot to discuss. For me, a lot of ‘what if’ questions came up. What if Anne had survived to pursue her writing career? What if she’d been able to finish Cady’s Life? And perhaps the worst question all: What if she’d survived the world? Would her works touch people as much if she’d been able to publish the diary herself? I like to think so. Her intelligence is evident and her talents were immense for someone her age. I can only speak for myself, but I know anything I wrote when I was her age could never be published for lack of refinement. She accomplished a lot in her far too short life.