Just like Anne, a book with a message

Recently I haven’t found the world to be much fun at all. Open a paper and what do you read? News about attacks in a Berlin Christmas Market or Istanbul dance club, an overheated debate about Black Pete, scary comments from Trump and Putin. There’s a lot of misery and negativity in the news. I often turn to Dennis and ask with a sigh: “What kind of world is our child growing up in?”

> For the Dutch article click here 

Job, our 8 year old son, has a subscription to Kidsweek. It’s a Dutch weekly paper for children in which the news is explained in terms they understand. But some things are near impossible to explain. What are we supposed to tell them about acts of terror? How can we explain our increasingly disrepectful and aggressive way of interacting [with each other]? How do we teach our children to protect themselves from all the above? And, most importantly, how do we help the child keep open hearts and minds and remember to see the beautiful things in life? How do you give them a place to dream?

Just like Anne…

Uggbert and (Ingrid) Robers — whose often illustrates for MoodKids — share similar thoughts about our children’s world. They live in Amsterdam and cycle past the Anne Frank House, almost every day. Anne Frank lived in a world where the rulers had forgotten about laughter and joy and love. Instead, there was darkness, anger, and war. Fortunately she left something behind: a wonderful diary. Anne’s diary inspired Uggbert & Rober’s new book ‘Just like Anne…’

I read the Diary of Anne Frank many times as a child. Back then it was mainly because of my interest in the Second World War. When I read it again as an adult, I was struck by Anne’s hope, her optimism and her dreams — even though she spent her days trapped and in hiding.

For the children

In ‘Just like Anne’ Uggbert & Robers ‘introduce’ children from around the world to some of the brighter entries from Anne’s diary. They do this through simple rhymes and delightful illustrations. The inspiration for their book comes from Anne’s thoughts and dreams about the things she wished to do but could not. ‘Just like Anne’ is a book about love, expression, freedom, and some of the things we can do to bring joy to our lives.

I read the book together with Job, who doesn’t know that much about the Second World War. It was mentioned in some of his school books, but his knowledge about the war is quite limited. Every afternoon we would read the dreams of two of the children in the book. Some were small (an ice cream or a pet rabbit), others were much larger (a place in the world for all kinds of people, or be happy and free wherever you go).

Job quickly realised that many of dreams in the book were not true for everyone, and some might never come true! I told him Anne had those dreams more than 70 years ago, and he asked me who Anne was. And so we ended up in a discussion (at Job’s level of understanding) about the Second World War and the unjust treatment of one group of people by another. Eventually Job rounded off our conversation with a loud sigh. “Phew! That’s terrible!” Two minutes later he was talking about what film he’d like to see in the cinema. It’s all relative to our son, I suppose!
But the story had touched him. The next morning Job said he would like to visit the Anne Frank House. We find him too young for that right now; we will visit when he is a bit older.

The strength of Just like Anne

The beauty of ‘Just like Anne’ is this: it’s a sweet little book (in the Netherlands it is a Little Golden Book) filled with beautiful illustrations and happy rhymes that can be read to children. But it also contains a deeper message that you, as a parent, can use for philosophical discussions with a child.

I really can recommend ‘Just like Anne’! It’s a very special children’s book.

Order here at Amazon:

Just Like Anne – Uggbert & Ingrid Robers – 2016 

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