Jewish Biographies for Children: F-G |
If you wish to purchase any of these books, click on either the title or the book cover to be directed to Amazon.com. As a warning, I have put up pictures of the book covers to give you somewhat an idea of the style of each book (I know, I know. "Don't judge a book by its cover") so the pages may load slowly, depending on the speed of your internet connection.
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 Meet My Grandmother : She's a United States Senator (Dianne Feinstein) By Lisa McElroy & Eileen Feinstein Mariano |
Dianne Feinstein, California Senator, is seen through her granddaughter's
eyes, with one half of the book covering her professional activities and
the other her grandmotherly interactions. The color photographs on every
page are clear and bright and provide interesting glimpses of these
behind-the-scenes aspects of life on Capitol Hill. However, the first-person
voice gets to be a bit much, especially the commentary accompanying a
photograph of the granddaughter as an infant during the 1992 Senate race.
Photographs abound of grandmother/granddaughter explorations of San Francisco.
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 The Diary of a Young Girl : The Definitive Edition Also Available in: Paperback Audio Cassette (Narration by Winona Ryder) |
Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life,
Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic -- a powerful
reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.
In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her
family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two
years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another
family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut
off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties
of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and
death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences
during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account
offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling
self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was
tragically cut short.
Anne Frank's diaries have always been among the most moving and eloquent documents of the Holocaust. This new edition restores diary entries omitted from the original edition, revealing a new depth to Anne's dreams, irritations, hardships, and passions. Anne emerges as more real, more human, and more vital than ever. If you've never read this remarkable autobiography, do so. If you have read it, you owe it to yourself to read it again. |
 Anne Frank House (CD-ROM) |
Explore the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank wrote her diary.
This CD-ROM was produced in cooperation with the Anne Frank
Museum and designed for both students and adults
Includes the book The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition Visit het achterhuis on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam and explore the annex where Anne Frank wrote her renowned diary. With more than 1,000 historical photos, over 15 video films, and four hours of spoken text, Anne Frank House presents a complete picture of all the details Anne sought to capture in her diary. The software even includes a copy of Anne's diary, complete with 30 percent more material than the original published version. Install the application and within minutes you'll have access to not only the program, but the Anne Frank Web site as well. The software is set up to resemble the actual house where Anne and her family hid during World War II. Using the mouse, we were able to navigate our way through different rooms throughout the building, as well as other buildings in the surrounding area. The program does an amazing job of capturing the neighborhood in which the family hid for all those years, as well as the actual rooms and corridors of their secret annex. Aside from a virtual tour of the house, complete with posters on the wall and food on the table, the program comes complete with dozens of short stories and explanations about the lives of all the occupants of 123 Prinsengracht. Click on the revolving cube that sits in the lower left-hand corner of your screen and choose from a number of options, including Timelines, People, Hidden Places, and more. We especially appreciated the outline of a typical day in the annex, where clicking on a particular time would launch a detailed explanation of what went on in the house at that particular hour. While the program may seem a bit overwhelming at times, mainly because of the large scope of information offered, it just takes a little time and practice to adjust to the application. In addition, a helpful lost-and-found navigation feature makes it easy to move around the software without losing your bearings. However, we found that sometimes the best way to experience this type of program is simply to point and click and see where it takes you. And if you do get stumped on a term or expression, the comprehensive glossary and help section is usually accessible from wherever you may be in the application. Designed for both students and teachers, Anne Frank House takes a comprehensive yet sensitive look at the complete story of Anne Frank, the families in hiding, and the vast, sometimes incomprehensible war that unfolded before their very eyes. |
 Anne Frank By Yona Zeldis McDonough |
This picture book opens with the Franks fleeing to the annex. Then the author tells about
happier times, the coming of the soldiers, and the beginning of the persecution. Sophisticated
language, topic, and the many flashbacks preclude the book's use with young children. The
explanation of Hitler's accession to power is simplistic; McDonough attributes it solely to
bad economic conditions. Once the author is into Anne's story, however, she tells it in a
straightforward manner and relates it well. The book is illustrated with bright, folk-art
paintings. At first, the pure colors of yellow, red, orange, green, blue, black, and brown
surrounded by alternating borders of the same colors seem inappropriate for such a subject,
but the childlike images provide impetus for discussion, and the bright colors of the innocent
contrast well with the dark colors of the evildoers. The paintings of happier past times are
cozy and cheerful. Mama and baby Anne look like a 1930s version of the Madonna and
child. A small painting of barbed wire encircling crossed Nazi flags on the opposite page
foreshadows the trouble to come. McDonough tells the story, but there's no doubt that
Zeldis provides the emotion. In the final picture, Anne is seen towering over the world and
all its people. She has risen phoenixlike from her diary and has become a myth, a myth that
symbolizes the yearnings of a people to be brave, to be optimistic, and most of all to survive.
Anne did not survive, but her story lives on.
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 Anne Frank in the World Compiled By The Anne Frank House |
In the spring of 1945, 15-year-old Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp. In 1947, Otto Frank published his daughter’s diary.
To date, The
Diary of a Young Girl has appeared in more than 50 different
editions and has sold more than 20 million copies.
This photo essay is an invaluable resource for readers of Anne’s diary. It offers a portrait of the Frank family, including many never-before-published photographs. And it also provides an account of the events between 1929 and 1945 that forced the Franks into hiding and resulted in their discovery and imprisonment in concentration camps. With more than 250 photographs, this book helps readers to see what Anne saw and brings the turbulent events that shaped her world into sharper focus. |
 Anne Frank : Life in Hiding By Johanna Hurwitz |
A highly praised introduction to Anne Frank and the Holocaust, this
sensitive portrait allows the reader to identify with Anne Frank and to
share her isolation, hopes, and fears. This biography tells about the
Frank family and their lives before World War II, the Nazi persecution
of Jews, and Anne's years in hiding.
|
 Anne Frank (First Books - Biographies) |
This accessible biography provides historical background for better understanding of
the events surrounding Anne's diary entries. Epstein focuses on Anne but puts her
experiences in the context of what was happening in Europe in the 1940s. Archival
photos and schematic drawings of the building that housed the secret annex supplement
the readable text. The last chapter discusses how Anne's diary was found and published.
|
 Anne Frank: A Hidden Life By Mirjam Pressler |
Many young people first encounter the terrible reality of the Nazi Holocaust through reading the
diaries of Anne Frank. Teens who cherish that unforgettable literary and emotional experience
will be fascinated by the additional insights in Anne Frank: A Hidden Life. Mirjam Pressler
draws on her background as editor of
Diary
of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition to explain the three versions of the Anne
Frank diaries, to discuss newly revealed material, and to speculate on Anne's spiritual and
sexual development during her three-year confinement in the secret annex. Pressler's title
takes on a double meaning as she analyzes Anne's "hidden life," the "much deeper, purer,
and finer" self the young girl wrote about wistfully but concealed from the others with a façade
of cheerful outspokenness. Pressler also uses the eyewitness testimonies of the Frank family's
helper Miep Gies, Anne's school friend Hanneli Goslar, and Otto Frank's stepdaughter Eva
Schloss to expand our understanding of the other inhabitants of the Annex and to follow them
through those unfathomable seven months in the death camps.
Anne Frank's remarkable diaries have been the subject of many other books, from learned essays to historical studies to picture books and poetry. Teens with an interest in the life of this cultural icon may also want to read Anne Frank: The Biography, The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank , and Memories of Anne Frank . |
 Anne Frank (Junior World Biographies) By Sandor Katz |
Katz uses the life of Anne Frank as a starting point for a discussion of Nazi
Germany and the Holocaust. Her story is recounted, and additional background
information is provided throughout. Middle-grade readers familiar with Anne
Frank will benefit from this simple historical context. Black-and-white
photographs accompany the text.
|
 Anne Frank : Child of the Holocaust (The Library of Famous Women) By Gene Brown |
Slowly but surely, the accomplishments of women are being recognized
and appreciated by the world at large. In our schools and in the media,
more emphasis is being placed on the meaningful roles women play.
The Library of Famous Women features an international collection
of courageous and determined individuals who have overcome both personal
adversity and societal predjudice to achieve their goals.
A biography of the thirteen-year-old Jewish girl whose diary, published after her death in a Nazi concentration camp, made her famous all over the world. |
 The Importance of Anne Frank By John F. Wukovits |
Do we need yet another book about Anne Frank? The answer is yes, if
junior-high and high-school readers want a context for the diary. This
book addresses some basic questions: What was happening in Germany and
in Holland at the time the Frank family went into hiding? How did Anne's
family and friends see her? Who hid them and why? What happened to Anne
and those who were captured with her after they were deported to the
camps? How did the diary get published? Why are people still arguing
about it? Part of the Importance Of series, this combines biography,
history, and commentary, in a highly readable format, with photos and
boxed quotes from the diary and from other sources. The strongest
quotes are from the accounts of eyewitnesses, especially Miep Gies
(who hid the family) and those who saw Anne, her mother, and her
sister on the transports and then as they were dying in the camps.
All the sources are fully documented by chapter, and many readers
will want to go from here to the books listed in the excellent
bibliography. The context denies any upbeat, hopeful view of the Holocaust.
|
 Anne Frank (What Made Them Great) By Laura Tyler |
Traces the life of the Jewish girl who hid with seven other people in
an attic for two years in Nazi-occupied Holland and chronicled her
day-to-day life in a diary which was discovered after her death in a
German concentration camp.
|
 Anne Frank: A Voice of Hope By Kristen Woronoff |
Although she was only a child during the Holocaust, her writing has touched people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds for generations.
|
 Sigmund Freud: Pioneer of the Mind By Catherine Reef |
Reef's (John Steinbeck; Walt Whitman) piercing biography deftly interprets the life of the father of psychoanalysis and one of the most influential men of the 20th century. From the first page, the author conjures the doctor's office and analytic approach, so that readers gain a sense of what his patients experienced and Freud's underlying theories. "Like an archaeologist of the mind, Freud waited for his patient's words to reveal their hidden messages: long-lost memories and unconscious desires." The author then traces his journey from early childhood as the favorite son to his escape from the Nazis. Freud emerges as a tirelessly determined scientist committed to helping patients wrestle demons and willing to face public ridicule for his convictions. The text hits controversy head-on, illuminating the strong backlash against Freud's emphasis on sexuality in his lifetime, his belief in the importance of a psychiatrist's self-analysis as well as current criticism of his narrow focus on "upper-middle-class European women" and his "assumption that his patients' memories of childhood abuse were imagined." Reef distills Freud's theories into comprehensible descriptions and combines a wealth of primary source material and idiosyncratic details to demonstrate his intellect, character and personality (e.g., to convey his devotion to his wife and six children, "Freud came home to eat lunch with the family every day, unless they were having chicken or cauliflower, two foods he hated"). Archival photographs and prints round out this compelling portrait of the scientist who forever changed society's view of the human mind.
Few historical figures have captured the public imagination as completely as Sigmund Freud. At a time when many ailments of the mind were treated with soothing baths or dangerous electroshock therapy, Freud initiated a novel practice: he simply listened to his patients. He called his method of treatment psychoanalysis, or "the talking cure." Though the validity of Freud's theories is still widely debated, there is little doubt that his contributions to the study of the mind were invaluable. In this compelling, even-handed biography, Catherine Reef explains Freud's groundbreaking theories and methods and shows how Freudian thought has affected our culture, changing the way we think about everything from art and literature to raising children. Beautiful archival family photographs round out this intimate look at a fascinating man. |
 Rabbenu Gershom Meor Hagolah By Dr. Marcus Lehman |
Rabbenu Gershom, the renowned tenth century Talmudist known
to his contemporaries as "Meor Hagolah - Light of the Diaspora,"
is caught in a web of misfortune that tests his faith and
ingenuity to the utmost. His story takes us to the magnificent
city of Constantinople. Here, as a talented physician and
craftsman, he wins the admiration and confidence of the royal
family. He also gains a dangerous enemy, and discovers treachery
within his own home. Later in life, Rabbenu Gershom instituted
the decree which bears his name: that a Jew may not have more
than one wife.
|
 George Gershwin (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers) By Mike Venezia |
The author/illustrator for the highly successful Getting to Know the
World's Greatest Artists series lends his creative talents to another
fun, informative series, this one featuring world famous composers.
Venezia's clever mix of full-color photos, his own tongue-in-cheek
cartoonlike illustrations, and factual biographical information presents
each composer as they really were, along with the forces that inspired
their world-renowned music. Gershwin came up with a whole new and
important American musical sound, from his brilliant and innovative
Rhapsody in Blue to the creation of one of the world's favorite operas,
Porgy and Bess.
|
 Ruth Bader Ginsburg : Supreme Court Justice By Jack L. Roberts |
A brief, readable profile of the women's rights advocate and Supreme Court
Justice. Focusing primarily on her law career, Robert's accurate and tightly
written text is enhanced with just enough black-and-white and full-color
photographs to keep interest high. The author recounts the firsthand
discrimination Ginsburg experienced for being Jewish, a woman, and a
working mother. The well-respected jurist is depicted as being well
informed, open-minded, and willing to listen.
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 Learning About Equal Rights from the Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg By Brenn Jones |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has devoted her life to fighting for equal rights. Ginsburg was one of only five women to enter Harvard Law School in 1956. In the 1970s, Ginsburg argued six cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, all of them dealing with equal rights. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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 Ruth Bader Ginsburg : Supreme Court Justice By Carmen Bredeson |
Bredeson concentrates on the path of Ginsburg's career, mentioning
little about her childhood. The brief history of the U.S. Supreme Court
will help readers understand just what her position entails.
|
 Hank Greenberg : Hall-Of-Fame Slugger By a Berkow |
Hank Greenberg, a special man with an independent spirit, was the first Jewish ballplayer to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Greenberg was a legend in many Jewish households in the 1930s and '40s. His powerful home runs hit during those years were sometimes a dramatic reply to Nazi actions in Europe and to anti-Jewish sentiment in America.
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 Hank Greenberg : Hall-Of-Fame Slugger |
Hank Greenberg's powerful home runs were sometimes a dramatic reply to Nazi actions in
Europe and to anti-Jewish sentiment in America. He was the first Jewish ballplayer to be
elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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