Lois Metzger

Ellen's euphoric start in seventh grade ends abruptly when she learns that her mother is pregnant—``I think Ellen's got a touch of sibling rivalry fever,'' her father says of her unenthusiastic response to the news. After baby brother Barry is diagnosed as having cerebral palsy, Ellen's burden of anger and guilt culminates in shoplifting and illness. With the help of her mother's new friend Maribeth, mother of a teenager with CP, they learn to cope with Barry's needs and their own feelings. Freedom from guilt opens Ellen's heart; she becomes totally absorbed with Barry, even fighting her father's attempts to care for him. Stressed when he regresses after Dad returns to sea duty, Ellen accidentally overmedicates Barry and her mother severely restricts her involvement in his care, insisting they share activities without him. Gradually, Ellen does develop her own life, complete with best friend, potential boyfriend, and a new closeness to her father, now home for two years. Metzger has a vivid and incisive narrative style, but this ambitious first novel is too long, too full, and not always credible, while overly intent messages distance the reader. Nonetheless, the focus on Ellen and her struggles with the complexities of growing up, sorting out her identity, and establishing her place in a family in crisis does result in a story with appeal for patient readers. (Fiction. 10+)… (meer)

I read The Diary of Anne Frank when I was twelve or thirteen years old. At that time, if there were other memoirs or nonfiction works for children about the Holocaust, I wasn’t aware of them. I knew Anne’s diary was an important historical document and that its author had tragically died from typhus in Bergen-Belsen just weeks before the camp was liberated. I felt genuinely ashamed that I didn’t like the famous work, which seemed overly long and often tedious. Its author was self-absorbed and boy-crazy and reminded me of schoolgirls I preferred to avoid. It seemed that the thoughts of her much-complained-about older sister, Margot, might have actually been more interesting to read. I have never returned to the diary—although hearing the writer Francine Prose being interviewed about its literary merit made me briefly entertain the idea of giving the book another try.

For many young readers, an actual biography of Anne Frank, like this brief one from 2004 by Lois Metzger, might provide a better introduction to the Holocaust than Anne’s famous diary. For one thing, it offers historical, geographical, and political context in accessible language, giving a better overall sense of the times and conditions than a diary can. For another, it spares the reader from “all Anne almost all the time.” The fact is: Anne really could be insufferable — harsh and egocentric. In synthesizing a number of adult works about her (which are listed at the back of the book), Metzger gives young readers a gift. She provides them with the perspectives of others. For example, she paints a sympathetic portrait of Edith Frank, who was breaking under the strain of the dire situation and evidently depressed. Metzger frequently notes the observations of Miep Gies, the devoted employee and friend of the Franks, who was critical in their managing as long as they did in the Secret Annex. Some of Anne’s girlhood friends who survived the war are also quoted. The inclusion of multiple points of view helps to provide a more balanced impression of who Anne was as a person. They work together to make empathetic narrative nonfiction that sometimes reads like a novel.

Metzger also addresses the psychological importance of the diary to Anne. It was an outlet that allowed the young girl a place for making sense of afflictive emotions and extremely stressful circumstances. Metzger selects the more insightful of Anne’s observations and makes the case that these reflect the young diarist’s emotional maturation and growing commitment to writing as a calling. I’d have to go back to the original work to see how well founded that interpretation is.

There are now many alternatives to Anne Frank’s diary. Metzger’s is a worthy one.… (meer)