Number the Stars
Lois Lowry (1989)
“A ten-year-old girl helps hide her best friend from the Nazis — and discovers that ordinary people can choose to be brave.”
At a Glance
In German-occupied Copenhagen in 1943, ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen helps her Jewish best friend Ellen Rosen escape to Sweden. When the Nazis order the 'relocation' of Danish Jews, Annemarie's family shelters Ellen and then guides the Rosen family to her Uncle Henrik's boat on the coast. Annemarie delivers a crucial packet to her uncle — not knowing it contains a special powder that disables Nazi guard dogs — and the Jews escape safely across the sea. The novel is based on the true story of how the Danish Resistance smuggled nearly the entire Danish Jewish population to neutral Sweden in October 1943.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Number the Stars won the Newbery Medal in 1990 and has been continuously in print since. It is one of the most-assigned novels in American middle school education and has introduced more young readers to the history of the Holocaust and the Danish rescue than any other work of fiction. Unlike most Holocaust fiction for young readers, it focuses on rescuers rather than victims — offering a model of resistance rather than only a record of suffering.
Diction Profile
Conversational and clear — accessible to middle-grade readers, with moments of deliberate gravity and controlled tension
Low to moderate