The House on the Canal
by Thomas Harding; illus. by Britta Teckentrup
Primary, Intermediate    Candlewick    56 pp.
1/25    9781536240702    $19.99
e-book ed.  9781536248647    $19.99

Following the same format as The House by the Lake (rev. 9/20), Harding and Teckentrup tell the story of the building where Anne Frank and seven others hid from the Nazis in WWII Amsterdam. The narrative begins in 1580 when the future building site is a bucolic marsh. Amsterdam grows rapidly during the late 1500s; the titular canal is created in the early 1600s, and in 1635 a stonemason builds the house and annex for his family. Over the next three hundred years, the house welcomes different families (e.g., a woman and her twelve children fleeing religious persecution), businesses, and for a while some horses in need of a stable. Neglected, it’s repaired over and over, including after a fire in 1884. Teckentrup’s textured mixed-media illustrations keep the pages engaging—not an easy assignment when the setting is the same throughout. While Harding’s accessible text is light on details, a helpful endnote provides more information about inhabitants and businesses mentioned in the main text, including the tragic fate of Otto Frank’s family during the Holocaust and how he worked to preserve Anne Frank Huis for future generations. Readers don’t need to be familiar with Anne’s diary to appreciate the history of the house and its environs, but for those that are, this adds rich context.

From the ">May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.