The Diary of Anne Frank, what age?

[branycbur]

My almost 10 year old wants to read Anne Frank and I think the subject is too mature. But she really wants to read it (her older sisters both have read it) and so I am wondering if I am not being to rigid on this. What age do you/did you/would you let your child read this book?

Thanks!

[BatmansWife]

Well, I'm not exactly sure. My daughter is 6 and is fascinated by the story. We just saw the High School play of it. Before the play we read a book about Anne Frank, I think it was a Scholastic level 3 reader (I can't seem to find it right now to check). Last week I got another one at the thrift store; a DK Biography. It's called Anne Frank A Photographic Story of a Life. Do you think she'd be satisfied with other stories about Anne Frank for now, and read the actual Diary in a couple of years? How old were her sisters when they read it? I've never read it. Since seeing the play and having these other books, I would really like to read the actual copy of the diary myself. Sorry if this wasn't much help.

[Heather in WI]

My son read it a few months ago when he was 9 as a part of studying WWII. He read the traditional version that was released by Mr. Frank, not the newer version that includes other parts of her diary.

 

I would let her read it.

 

My seven year old read a junior version of the book and then we watched, as a family, the 1959 movie.

[Jen+4dc]

My understanding is that there's a version (the one I read in high school) that details their hiding and finally getting caught, etc. and then a second one that includes a lot more info (like her s3xual "coming of age" in hiding).

 

If my dd really, really wanted to read it, I would preread and make sure it was the "cleaner" one I read in high school and then let her read it. At age 10 why introduce other things unneccesarily?:) YMMV

[HappyGrace]

I'm glad to know there is a "cleaner" version. I remember being really upset and shocked about the sexual stuff in high school so I held off on my 10 yr old dd reading it with our modern study this year.

 

(At any rate, we decided to go very very light on difficult topics and only covered WWII, etc for less than a week-broad overview of who fought and why, things like that. We can get more into the rest of it next history cycle when she's a little older!)

[susancollins]

I read it when I was nine or ten. A new movie about AnneFrank from BBC came out last year it will be instant streamming sometime in May on Netflix. I requested it last week and it was a very good movie. She could read the book and then watch the movie.

[Ester Maria]

It is potentially problematic for that age because of, as other members have brought up, some sexual content. I personally did allow my daughters to read it at 10-11 (I thought, and rightly so, that they would barely notice these things and that they would have no significance for them nor disturb them), but I can see why some parents might wish to go for the censored version or wait for a couple of years.