Number the Stars

Title: Number the Stars
ISBN:0440413281
Date of Publication:1989
Author: Lowis Lowry
Award Won: Newbery Award
Age recommendation: Ages 9 and up
Group Represented: families, Jewish and Christian, living in Denmark during Nazi occupation

Number the Stars takes place in Denmark during World War II when the Nazi soldiers occupied the country. The main characters are the Rosens, a Jewish family, and the Johansens, a Christian family. Two girls, Ellen Rosen and Annemarie Johansen , are best friends and live in the same apartment building. The Rosens soon learn that the Nazi soldiers have started closing Jewish run businesses and taking Jewish families away. The Rosens are trying to escape to Sweden before the Germans can send them to a concentration camp. The Johansen's are going to help the Rosens. Mrs. Johansen's brother is a fisherman who lives in the country. They go to his house and he agrees to take them on his boat. The Rosen's, along with some other Jewish families, sail across the Baltic Sea to Sweden where they can be free. The journey is dangerous, but they make it. Before they sail it is discovered that Mr. Rosen dropped a handkerchief, with a special scent on it that keeps Nazi guard dogs away, in the woods during the night journey to the boat. Annemarie has to take the handkerchief secretly to her uncle before he can leave. She makes it safely even after being stopped by soldiers, because of her bravery the Rosens make it across.


This book would be a really good book to use when teaching about the Holocaust, or World War II. It could also be used when studying time periods to learn about all the different events that happened in history in the 1940's in different parts of the world. It could be used in a lesson on bravery.