Practical MagicAuthor Pens New Anne Frank Novel: 'Love and Hope Can Change the World' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Anne Frank and the new novel that takes young readers through her story.Photo:Scholastic Press; Alamy

Scholastic Press; Alamy

Bestselling authorAlice Hoffman, best-known forPractical Magic, which became the cult classic film of the same name, is turning her pen toward an important historical figure like we’ve never seen her before: Anne Frank.

InWhen We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary, out Sept. 17 from Scholastic Press, we get to see Anne’s world before she and her family were forced into hiding in the annex of her father’s office.

Hoffman draws on her extensive research on that period to explore what happens when “state-sponsored discrimination turns ordinary people into monsters, the Jews in the Netherlands are caught in an inescapable swell of violence and hate, and Anne is shaped as both a young woman and as a writer who will change the world,” according to the publisher’s synopsis of the book.

ScholasticPress

The book, which is geared toward middle grade readers ages 8-12, includes archival content from theAnne Frank Houseand information about Otto Frank’s desperate attempts to secure his family safety in America, gathered from correspondence between Frank and Nathan Straus, Jr. from theStraus Historical Society’s Archives.

“Anne Frank’s story is more important than ever," the author tells PEOPLE. “We need to remember the damage hatred can do, and how love and hope can change the world.”

source: people.com