Help me choose: The Hiding Place vs. Story of Anne Frank

[klmama]

Anne dies at the end, right? So is The Hiding Place less traumatic for a sensitive child? What says the Hive?

[readwithem]

Anne dies at the end, right? So is The Hiding Place less traumatic for a sensitive child? What says the Hive?

 

I liked the redemptive side to Hiding Place. I think both *might* be traumatic for a sensitive child, as both talk of horrors of mankind.

 

But to answer your specific question about death, Corrie survives the concentration camp experience.

[Annie Laurie]

I think either would be hard for a sensitive child. But The Hiding Place maybe even more so.

 

The reason why is because in The Diary of a Young Girl, a lot of it is Anne's journaling about life in hiding which can be suspensful at times but there isn't anything violent happening to them right then. The diary just ends and it's very heartbreaking, but it's not as graphic. The Hiding Place is an amazing story of faith and hope, but since Corrie Ten Boom is in a concentration camp, there are a lot of very graphic, disturbing stories of what goes on there, and other central people do die.

 

In my own family, I'll probably have my kids read Anne Frank well before The Hiding Place, but I'm one with sensitive kids. YMMV.

[Lori D.]

We read The Hiding Place aloud together several years ago (the boys were about 11 and 13), and it was such an uplifting and encouraging account of faith and God's working in the midst of such evil, that we still refer back to the book as wonderful, positive examples to strive for ourselves. : )

 

Yes, terrible things do happen, but they are not described graphically and what really shines out in our memories of the book is the hope, faith and trust in God, in comparison to the evil around them. Plus, the book ends with a wonderful, positive account of how the surviving sister goes forward from those events with a positive message of faith, forgiveness, and restoration, which she shares all over the world for years after WW2.

 

 

We will be doing Diary of Anne Frank this year (ages 15 and 16), along with a number of other books on WW2 as part of our 20th century history studies, now that the boys are a little older and can handle the more serious and sombre aspects of WW2, the Holocaust, etc., and the fact that with the exception of the father, the whole Frank family dies.

 

So there you go... another point of view just to make it more confusing! :tongue_smilie: Warm regards, Lori D.

[Guest]

Having lived in the Netherlands, I have visited the Ten Boom home and the hiding place of Anne Frank. My middle school had been the prison Corrie and her sister were taken to. Let me tell you, I will never have my boys read either account. Both are too close to me. The Dutch still lived so close to WW2.

No, I will not expose them to the horrors of war and what humans can do and have done. Mine are very sensitive. And I would say so am I.

[cricket1178]

Just wanted to comment that I think some of the vivid descriptions of concentration camp life may be too much for a sensitive child. Although Corrie doesn't die, others do. However, I loved The Hiding Place for the testimony that it is and I believe it impacted my dc positively overall. I read this book with my boys about 7th grade. I am waiting to read it with my dd until 8th grade only because we won't be to that point of history until then.

[Meljoy]

We read The Hiding Place aloud together several years ago (the boys were about 11 and 13), and it was such an uplifting and encouraging account of faith and God's working in the midst of such evil, that we still refer back to the book as wonderful, positive examples to strive for ourselves. : )

 

Yes, terrible things do happen, but they are not described graphically and what really shines out in our memories of the book is the hope, faith and trust in God, in comparison to the evil around them. Plus, the book ends with a wonderful, positive account of how the surviving sister goes forward from those events with a positive message of faith, forgiveness, and restoration, which she shares all over the world for years after WW2.

 

.

 

:iagree:

 

The Hiding Place is one of my all time favorite books- mainly because it is very uplifting and encouraging- makes you feel you can make it through anything with faith in God.

It may depend on how much they are exposed to in movies and on TV (News)and such. There are terrible things going on in the world everyday -and if things ever change in the USA (or in his life in general) I want my DS to know where his hope should come from.

I was very encouraged by the things Corrie was able to overcome with the help of God. It taught me a lot about forgiveness and to appreciate the small things like blue sweaters and fleas. I think it makes it easier for the reader to make it past the horrors of what happened because not only did Corrie survive -she was victorious in spite of her circumstances. Have you read any of her other books? She went on to do great things with her life, has actually touched millions of lives, she may never have if not for her experiences. I plan to read this aloud to my DS in the next year or so.....