Frank Talk

British writer Josephine Poole discusses her latest book, Anne Frank

By Rick Margolis -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2005

You’ve been writing for children for more than 40 years....

Have I really? What a dreadfully long time. Oh, God, it really is. People ask, “How many books have you written?” and I don’t really know.

Your first book, A Dream in the House, was published in 1961.

Almost as soon as I had written it, I didn’t think it was any good. Another book, Moon Eyes, was very successful. That came out in the States in 1967, and I had, for a long time, letters from children in the States. The nicest of all was just one line, in very large writing. It said, “If you’re ever in town, stop by.” I thought that was absolutely charming—I only wish I had been, and I would have.

Is it true that when your publisher asked you to do a picture book about Anne Frank you resisted?

Absolutely. I didn’t see how one could do it. And was it a good thing to do it in the first place?

What changed your mind?

The publisher wrote an extremely good letter, saying that she thought it was important. She thought that children should hear Anne’s story at a young age—everyone should hear about it to prevent it from happening again.

As you researched Anne’s life, was there anything about her that surprised or touched you?

I think that passage that we quote at the beginning of the picture book [that begins, “I see the eight of us in the annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds”]. I think that is a most extraordinary bit of writing.

What’s special about her writing?

She’s a unique writer, because she’s not copying anybody else’s style. You know, when you’re 13, 14, when you’re growing up, you perhaps admired Stephen King. So when you wrote a story, a bit of Stephen King was in there. I don’t see anything of anybody else in Anne’s work. I think she sat with her book, taking down what people said very accurately. That is very extraordinary for her to do at that age—and for a child to put down her terrors. She was obviously an extremely talented person.

Since you were writing for young children, how did you decide what to include about the Nazi atrocities?

I tried to approach it from the point of view of the child, Anne, what she would have known. So the bullying at school comes into it, the vandalizing of Jewish homes, and saying good-bye to the cat—things like that. The larger picture is only hinted at.

Angela Barrett has illustrated your last three picture books—Snow White, Joan of Arc, and Anne, which I think is gorgeous. What do you most appreciate about her work?

She is a tremendous researcher. She goes into every detail. The picture of the little girl in the cot, well, that’s a 1920s cot—Anne was born in 1929—and a 1920s doll hanging from it and 1920s curtains and nappies and all that.

What do you hope children will learn from reading Anne Frank?

I would like them to be able to see clearly what went wrong with people bullying each other. That starts when you’re very small. As soon as you think that you’re right and the other person is wrong and start to punish them because they don’t think as you do, you’re on pretty dangerous ground.