Monday, March 18, 2013

Anne Frank App Launches for Holocaust Memorial Day


London, Friday 25 January – One of the most celebrated books of all time, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, is launched as a richly immersive iPad and Nook app today. Sixty five years after it was first published by Anne’s father Otto Frank, the diary has been brought to life digitally for a new generation of readers and existing fans alike.

The app, which launches at £6.99, has been created by Viking, Penguin, digital producers Beyond The Story and the Anne Frank Fonds Basel. Transforming the book from flat text into a fully immersive user experience, the entire diary text is enhanced by interactive, multimedia embedded content, relevant to where the reader is in the story.

By simply tapping on a word, digital readers can explore Anne Frank’s world through unprecedented historical context - video interviews, audio clips, archive images, education material and original illustrated features. This gives modern readers a greater sense of what living in hiding looked, sounded and felt like, and what, in turn, was happening outside the walls of the Secret Annexe where Anne spent two years before she and her family were betrayed to the Nazis.

Broadcast quality video clip links:
Walkthrough with voice over:

Vimeo links for general near-broadcast-quality playback:
Walkthrough with voice over: http://player.vimeo.com/video/57689747

Jen Porter, CEO and Founder of Beyond The Story: “This is an exciting step forward for book apps, taking the reader experience to a completely new level of interaction that is a world removed from the simplistic text replication of the e-book market. Anne’s extraordinary experience is brought to life digitally in a way that she herself would never have conceived possible – and in a way will delight today’s most digitally-savvy consumer.”

Venetia Butterfield, Viking Publishing Director: “Seventy years since Anne began her diary it remains one of the most beloved books of all time. With the support of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel and Beyond The Story we are proud for The Diary of a Young Girl to be Penguin General’s first App, and to bring Anne’s story to readers in such an inspiring and sympathetic way.”

Buddy Elias, Anne’s cousin and President of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel: “This app takes the reader into an entirely new dimension of history and delivers important contexts on reading the diary.”

Miranda McKearney OBE, director of national charity The Reading Agency: “Developments like the new Anne Frank app make me glad to be living through these revolutionary times for reading. Through The Reading Agency’s work with young people and libraries, we know what a huge appetite there is for new blends of reading experiences. So we're delighted to be working with Penguin to enable young people and their reading groups to exclusively preview, blog and comment on the new app, through our Reading Partners consortium which enables library services and publishers to create successful and exciting events and activities for readers.“

Features of the new app include:

·         21 video clips from Academy Award-winning documentary-maker Jon Blair, director of Anne Frank Remembered
·         Over 40 audio clips, including commentary from Miep Gies, one of the helpers who risked her life to aid Anne and her family in hiding
·         The full, definitive text - including the five missing pages discovered in 1998 -together with exclusive audio extracts read by Helena Bonham Carter
·         Context-sensitive notes, historic documents and hand-drawn maps
·         Specially commissioned introduction by Buddy Elias, Anne’s first cousin and only living relative
·         Translated facsimile pages from the original diary
·         Dual timelines featuring family images from Anne’s life before the war, historic wartime images from international archives and specialist commentary on key events
·         Expertly curated themes and ‘Story Trails’ for a deeper, more in-depth reading experience
·         Exclusive access to the archive of the Anne Frank Fonds, founded by Anne’s father Otto Frank, including previously unreleased material


The Anne Frank app is available from the Apple App Store (www.itunes.com/appstore) and Nook Store (http://uk.nook.com/store/apps).It has been approved and authorised by the 

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