Review: When We Flew Away

When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

by Alice Hoffman

Scholastic, 2024

Category: Middle Grade

Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer

Buy at Bookshop.org

Alice Hoffman brings her trademark magical realism to her version of Anne Frank’s life. The book opens with a fairytale-like prologue which sets the tone, stating “Once there were two sisters. One was beautiful and well-behaved and one saw the future and stepped inside it.” That magical realism continues throughout the book with recurring motifs of black moths, magpies, and rabbits representing the Jews, and wolves representing the Nazis.

The main action of the novel begins on “the day everything changed.” Immediately the reader’s curiosity is piqued: which day - other than the day when the Franks went into hiding and the day they were betrayed - could have been the one that everything changed?

It turns out that it was the day that Nazi Germany began bombing The Netherlands.

Hoffman could have begun the book earlier, but beginning it on the day The Netherlands was forced into World War II means that the Franks’ world starts getting smaller and smaller - both figuratively and actually - right from the start. Jews are increasingly banned from public venues for entertainment and mental escape, like theaters, parks, and libraries (as well as public schools), while, in parallel, the Franks’ literal, physical escape routes close one by one. The novel therefore focuses on relationships instead of plot, and specifically, Anne’s relationships with her sister, with each of her parents, with her maternal grandmother who lives with them, with her friends, and with her first boyfriend.

The Franks’ identity as Jews is central to what happens to them and how they are treated, but Judaism, as a religion, does not figure prominently in their lives. The only holiday the Franks observe in the novel is Purim, which, featuring as it does, a strong woman who has to hide her Jewishness, is an appropriate choice. (Hoffman does mention that, in happier times, the Franks would have celebrated Hanukkah with jelly donuts.) In their lack of religiosity, the Franks were like so many other Jewish victims of the Nazis, who did not distinguish between observant and secular Jews.

When We Flew Away straddles the categories of middle grade and young adult. It is appropriate for mature tweens and up, particularly those with some prior knowledge of the topic. Although certain events, like Kristallnacht, are spelled out, background knowledge is often assumed. An afterword fills in a bit more about Anne’s life and its tragic ending, as well as explaining what led Hoffman to write this book.

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Reviewer Rachel J. Fremmer is a lawyer-turned-elementary-school librarian. She writes an annual round-up of the best Jewish children’s books for Tablet, the online magazine. She is a native-and-forever New Yorker and lives there with her family. She is continually inspired by the city even though apartment living means she is running out of room for her picture book collection. She was selected by PJ Library for their inaugural Picture Book Summer Camp for Emerging Writers. When she is not reading or writing, she is baking or doing crossword puzzles.