The House on the Canal: The Story of the House that Hid Anne Frank

The House on the Canal: The Story of the House That Hid Anne Frank is an unusual picture book because the main character is the building itself. There is no plot, no characters except for the list of people (and animals) who lived there over 400 years. The book is the setting. The setting is the character.

The book opens with an explanation of how the marsh lands were turned into land with canals running between the houses. The end papers are the green marshlands. The cover is green, like the front door of the house.

The back matter tells more information about each of the people who lived there: the builder, the woman with 12 children, the wealthy merchant, the various businesses, the ironmonger, and finally the Frank business and the annex for hiding Anne Franks’ family plus four more people. The book would be pointless without them, the “girl with the sweet smile” who left her diary for the world.

There was a fire in 1884 and detail in the telling: “Burning flames burst from the chimney, boiling and battering and blistering the strong brick walls and sturdy pine floors and green front door. Four horses galloped up the canal pulling a water wagon. The brave firefighters saved the house.”

Another passage showing detail from 1880: “They burned peat in the fireplaces and flushed their toilets into the canal. A blue haze hung along the street.”

A chestnut tree took root in 1853, the same tree that Anne Frank looked at from the annex attic window in 1942 (the years are in the upper right corners of the pages). This gives some continuity to the string of stories regarding who lived in the house.

In 1841, the ground floor of the house was a stable for five horses. “At night they were kept company by spiders and mice and bats.”

Another continuous presence was the church and its bells, built in 1635 and always present except during the Nazi Occupation. “The men stomped up the secret stairs and found the girl and her family and their friends. They took them away from the house. The bells from the church did not ring.”

The illustrations are lovely in pastels, alternating with brighter pages, the buildings in reds and browns with pen and ink accents. All the backgrounds are subtle colors, no white anywhere to be seen.

This is the kind of book to be found in museums and, of course, at The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Those interested in this book might be moved to visit it someday.

Architects or students interested in architecture might enjoy having a copy of this book.