12th June Anne Frank Day

On 12th June, 1942 Anne Frank received a diary for her 13th birthday. She was a young Jewish girl who lived and died during the Holocaust. While she and her family were hiding from the Nazis for about two years, she kept writing about the horror of war and the daily problems of being a teenager. A month before the war ended, Anne died in a concentration camp, but her father survived. After he found her diary, he decided to publish The Diary of a Young Girl in 1947.

This memorable book is now accessible to much younger children as well as teens because of the number of biographies that have been written about her.

These show a different perspective of her life.

Martin and Anne  by Nancy Churnin

The uncanny parallels between Anne Frank and Martin Luther King who were born in the same year an ocean apart are explored in parallel biographies.

The Cat Who Lived With Anne Frank by David Lee Miller

Told from the perspective of the cat, Mouschi who actually lived with Anne Frank in the Amsterdam annex, this book paints a picture of a young girl who wistfully dreams of a better life for herself and her friends.

And not to be missed:

The House on the Canal  by Thomas Harding and Britta Teckentrup

In the middle of Amsterdam, stands a tall, narrow house on a canal. Over the course of four centuries the house has been a home to many – from poor families to wealthy couples, and those hiding from persecution. Like the family of a young Jewish girl who sought refuge in the annexe and wrote in her diary of the “old house on the canal”. The girl’s name was Anne Frank, and her diary became world famous.

The story of Anne Frank and her diary is one of the world's most important and well-known, but less is known about the woman who sheltered Anne and her family for years and, ultimately, rescued Anne's diary from Nazi clutches. Miep Gies was a woman who rose to bravery when humanity needed it and risked everything for her neighbors. It is because of Miep we know Anne Frank.

Miep and the Most Famous Diary  by Meeg Pincus 

21st December Anne and Samantha Day

Anne and Samantha Day, celebrated on June 20 and December 21 every year, is a special tribute to celebrate both Anne Frank and Samantha Smith. Anne and Samantha Day takes place twice a year on the summer solstice and the winter solstice. This day is meant to let the world know about the pain, suffering, uproars, and revolution brought by these young women.

Who were Anne and Samantha? What was their contribution to the world?

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl whose writings in her diary — “The Diary of a Young Jewish Girl” — impacted generations. Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929, to Otto and Ruth Frank. The Frank family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Amsterdam, Netherlands. However, they were still not safe as the Nazis invaded Amsterdam in 1942 and the family needed to go into hiding behind a wall. Here she wrote her diary. Unfortunately the family was betrayed and Anne's father was the only family member who survived. He later found her diary.

Samantha Reed Smith was the daughter of  a social worker, Jane Goshorn Smith. She was born on June 29, 1972. When she was only ten years old, she wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov, who was the leader of the Soviet Union. She wanted to understand the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union.

In July 1983 Smith and her family spent two weeks in the Soviet Union, visiting Moscow, Leningrad, and Artek, a children’s camp on the Black Sea. After returning home, she gave numerous television interviews. In a December 1983 speech at the International Children’s Symposium in Kobe, Japan, she suggested that U.S. and Soviet leaders exchange granddaughters for two weeks every year, because a leader would not want to bomb a country that “his granddaughter was visiting.” On August 25, 1985, Smith and her father, Arthur were killed in a commuter plane crash.

These girls were young but very aware of the world they were living in just like so many of the young people today who also are very unhappy about what is happening in the world especially in relationship to the current conflicts and the number of civilian casualties.

Anne Frank and Samantha Smith deserve our recognition as positive influences on schoolchildren. Both of them understood that no matter how difficult the current circumstances are, it is important to strive towards a peaceful future for all nations.

What to do to celebrate this day? Learn more about the two girls, be inspired to do something that involves writing or read about conflict and how it affects children.

You could start with books such as these:

• Anne Frank  by Isabel Sanchez Vegara

• Behind the Bookcase by Barbara Lowell

• The Woman who Rescued Anne's Diary  by Meet Pincus

• Anne Frank by Josephine Poole

• America's Youngest Ambassador  by Lena Nelson (This is not a book for children but it certainly gives adult readers plenty of food for thought)

12th June Anne Frank (1929 -1945)

Jewish girl Anne Frank who became famous because of her wartime diary was born on this day in 1929. There are some very good websites which will give young children substantial information about her here and here, but if you want to know what the children are reading here are two books:

• Anne Frank by Josephine Poole and Angela Barrett is a picture book version of her story. It includes her life as a child and her escape to Holland. The illustrations are understandably dark and I think this is a book best shared with an adult.

• The Story of Anne Frank by Brenda Ralph Lewis is a biography for young children which includes photos.

Neither of these though are substitutes for reading the real diary when they are older.