The Upstairs Room

"Anne’s story ended tragically, but as an aside I should mention that when I was living in New York, I met a Dutch woman called Johanna Reiss. I was lucky enough to have her as my Dutch teacher, and she lived only a couple of blocks from me in the East Village. She was Jewish and had survived the war with one of her sisters by hiding with a farmer in the eastern Netherlands. Her book about that, The Upstairs Room , written for children, won a Newbery Honor. I like to think of it as Anne Frank but with a less sad ending. She also has another book, The Journey Back , about reintegrating after the war, and how weird and uncomfortable it was."