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Speaker 1: Hell Lloen, good morning.

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Speaker 2: Hi.

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Speaker 1: How are you absolutely fantastic? What is inside your imagination today?

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Because you know how to write and that thing can't

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just be shut off?

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Speaker 3: Well, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that you.

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Speaker 1: Have done something with your new book that really has

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touched my wife and I in so many different ways,

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and we could not wait to share this book with

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everybody that we came in touch with. You have taken

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something that we know, the story, but you've given it

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a modern flavor to it.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that to.

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Speaker 1: Be in this moment. I mean, my wife has so

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many different questions, as do I. But I mean, the

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Diary of Anne Frank was so it was it was

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considered to be required reading in high school. Do you

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envision your book being the same thing, but done so

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in a way that is less violent?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'm afraid that the Diary is not

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required reading at so many places.

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Speaker 1: Not anymore.

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Speaker 3: Wow, not anymore.

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Speaker 2: And so my goal with my book would be to

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have somebody read it and then go read the diary,

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so that that would be my goal.

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Speaker 1: Wow. One of the things that stands out inside this book,

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and it's only because I believe in animals speak. The

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magpies appear in this story a lot. Is this something

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that you lived with or did Anne Frank, because this

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is the first time I've heard of this.

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Speaker 2: No, I think, you know what, you know why. I

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think I started writing about those things because I started

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working on this really during COVID, And during COVID I

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felt like we're at least the city where I lived,

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that animals started coming into the city. The cities were

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kind of deserted, and so all of a sudden, we

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had turkeys, we had coyotes, we had fox that these

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were not city creatures, And I thought it's so interesting

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that when people are destroying things that nature kind of

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moves in to take over.

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Speaker 3: So I think that was.

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Speaker 2: Kind of the symbolism of what was happening with the magpies.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Keeping history alive requires authors like yourself to have

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the courage and the confidence to keep pushing a story forward.

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And in my heart, I believe that people have lost

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what's been going on with the Anne Frank story.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so too, And I think that was

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one of the reasons that you know, they you know,

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the Anne Frank House was very.

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Speaker 3: Interested in this project.

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Speaker 2: Incredibly helpful, and their researchers and historians were great, and

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I think that was part of the reason, is that

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to make it be alive, to make history be alive

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and current and have people remember what happened so that

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we don't have it happening again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Ann seemed to be the type of person who

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always found a positive in things. She was always thinking

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about the future and there's there had to be a positive.

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Did this pour into your heart as well?

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Speaker 2: One hundred percent?

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Speaker 3: I mean that.

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Speaker 2: I think that's why she so appealed to me when

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I was, you know, twelve years old, because I was

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not a positive person and reading her book really inspired me.

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I mean, her idea that there was still good to

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be found even in the most horrific circumstances was something

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that was very meaningful for me and I think for

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all of her readers.

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Speaker 1: Now, will you ever release a version of this book

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with tiny your print? And here's the reason why, Because

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when my wife first picked up the book, she goes,

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this must be a ya book, And I said, you

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need to read this book because don't think of it

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just because because it has bigger letters. And I think

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that people judge a book by the size of the.

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Speaker 2: Font, isn't that interesting?

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Speaker 1: Well, I always like big fun to meet too, me too,

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So I don't.

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Speaker 3: Know, and so that doesn't bother me at all.

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Speaker 2: I feel like it's also a really great book to

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read with your kids. Yes, you know, I think, I

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think that is a really great thing to do. But

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you know, for me, this book is for everyone. I'm

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always writing for myself, so you know, in a way,

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I wrote this book for myself. So for me, it

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feels like, yes, it's a children's book and children can

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read it, but I also feel like it's really meant

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for everyone.

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Speaker 1: When I was in middle school, of course, it was

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way back in the in the seventies, so that meant

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that when we read the story about Anne Frank, it

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was more of a black and white world. I in

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my heart, while reading this book, it almost feels like

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you've colorized it to the point where we go, oh,

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oh my god. It's like it's it's right here.

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Speaker 2: That's so interesting. Well, I feel like I wanted to

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get the sense that it wasn't I wanted to give

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the sense that it wasn't that far away, because it wasn't.

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Speaker 3: That far away.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the ant frank Has opened in nineteen sixty.

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You know, that's not that long ago, and sometimes we

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see it in black and white, like it happened so

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long ago, but it's it's you know, I wanted it

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to feel very current.

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Speaker 3: So I really appreciate that.

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Speaker 1: What did you learn in doing the research, because I mean,

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it's always been here in front of us, but you

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actually took the necessary steps to go back into the

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past to bring it forward.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean one of the things that really affected me

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was to see how the politics were changing all around

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these people, and they didn't see it because it happened

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very slowly.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 2: They had to give their names, they had to give

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their addresses, they couldn't go out at night. It's like

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a slow progression, and then all of a sudden they

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couldn't do anything. And just like the slow build where

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they were just really taken unawares, and they also didn't

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want to know because it was so horrifying.

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Speaker 1: I feel so foolish that I didn't know Anne's life

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before going into hiding. It seems like that in my

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memories start with the hiding.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, no, I think that's what it is for

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all of us. So I think that was one of

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the interesting things about this book was to find out, Okay,

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so what happened before that, what led up to this,

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what was her life like and the life of her

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family like before hiding.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because we've sat down with our granddaughter and we've

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explained to her. I said, if you would have been

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in this period because of your grandmother's history, you would

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have gone to a concentration camp. And that scared the

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hell out of her.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is really scary to think about what hatred

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can do and how people make other people into the

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other and you know, tell stories that you know, there's

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all kinds of different storytelling, but there are stories to

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scare people, to upset people, to alienate people, and then

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there are stories to heal people and to remember what

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really happened.

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Speaker 1: We need a book like this to help locate peace

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for tomorrow, and it's going to require the YA readers

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as well as those that are before them or just

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a little bit after them, because if you show us

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empowerment as well as encouragement.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope, so, thank you. I really hope that's

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what it does.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Because I mean, it's like I said before, it

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takes authors like yourself to reach out there, and there's

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a lot of things to be reaching through and you're

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doing this well.

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Speaker 3: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: It's something that I really wanted to do, and I

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feel like, you know, I was so affected by this

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story and I wanted people to have that experience of

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being affected by our story.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel like that we've lost something? Because I

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mean that's one of the things that you do. You

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put the importance on remembering and honoring things that we

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have lost.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, I think in this modern world,

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things don't last as long. You know, things a throwaway,

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you know, whether whether it's art or whether it's history,

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and that people don't remember to the same extent because

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there's so much information coming in and I think it's

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just really important to remember what happened.

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Speaker 1: Was it interesting to you to see that Anne Frank

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was very playful, that she was witty and mischievous.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it really was.

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Speaker 2: She was. She got into trouble at school.

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Speaker 1: See, that's humanizing her. This See once again, you have

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given us the opportunity to see a different side of history.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think it's really important to humanize it and

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to have her be a real person not just an icon,

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but a real person.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. What do you foresee when it comes to this

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book getting out there into the hands of readers.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, my hope is always that you know,

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people will have a personal response, a personal reaction, that

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it will be meaningful for them, that it will be

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to them what the books that I love are to me,

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and that you know, they'll carry it with them and

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want to know more about it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you find yourself doing other books of history

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like this in the in the year's a come?

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Speaker 2: Uh? You know, I'm not sure. You know, it's really

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a lot of work.

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Speaker 3: This is a very.

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Speaker 2: Special book and I so wanted to do it, and

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it was kind of a full circle moment for me

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having started wanting to be a writer, you know, because

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of this book, and then having the honor to work

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on this book. So, you know, I don't know what's

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going to happen next.

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Speaker 1: To tell you the truth, did you send a copy

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to the museum?

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Speaker 3: They have it? Yes?

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Speaker 1: Oh God, that's got to be so special.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, it definitely is. They have been great.

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Speaker 1: Well. I wish you could have been in the living

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room when I handed my wife this book, because her

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world stopped. She literally looked at the book as she

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was like going, and it shook something inside of her.

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And I think other people are going to feel the

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same way.

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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, I hope so, and please thank her

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for me.

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Speaker 1: Are you going to work your way into making making

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a modernized documentary or do we let history handle that?

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Speaker 2: You know that that is out of my hands.

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Speaker 3: You know, I don't know what that is. I mean

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for me.

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Speaker 2: The great thing about because it is that it's so personal,

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it's so intimate. I feel like reading is not like

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anything else, and so you know, I'm just thinking of.

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Speaker 1: It as the book that's so interesting. You say that,

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because that's how I feel about radio with zoom and

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all that kind of stuff. People go, how come I

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can't see your face because I'm a radio guy, Because

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that's what that's what it's all about. Same is true

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with reading for you then, right, it's.

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Speaker 2: Very intimate, it's personal, and you know you're speaking directly

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to somebody.

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Speaker 3: It's very similar in that way.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Where can people go to find out more about

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you and they can grow with you and give you

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some love?

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Speaker 2: Oh that's a nice Well they can go to I

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have a Facebook page and Instagram page at a Hoffman

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writer and I have I also have a website www.

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Alice Hoffman dot com. Or you can go to Scholastic,

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the publisher. They have an Instagram page and a website

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and you can find that information there.

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Speaker 1: Please come back to the show anytime in the future.

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The door is always going to be open for you.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: No, thank you so much. You'd be brilliant today.

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Speaker 3: Okay, thank you yah.