Number the Stars

Summary

Number the Stars is set in Copenhagen and on the north coast of Zealand in September and October 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark. Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen race each other home from school and are stopped on the street by two German soldiers; Annemarie's little sister Kirsti, five, chatters at them fearlessly. At home the family remembers Lise, Annemarie's older sister, who was killed in what the girls were told was an accident two weeks before her wedding to Peter Neilsen. Papa tells the story of King Christian X, who rides through the city each morning without a guard, and of the Danish boy who told a soldier that the whole nation was the king's bodyguard. When Mrs. Hirsch's button shop is suddenly closed, Peter, now secretly in the Resistance, warns that the Germans have taken lists of Jewish families from the synagogue. On the Jewish New Year the Rosens go into hiding and leave Ellen with the Johansens as a third daughter. That night soldiers search the flat. Annemarie tears the Star of David necklace from Ellen's neck and grips it so hard it marks her palm, and Papa passes off dark-haired Ellen as Lise by showing a baby picture of his dead daughter; the officer rips the photograph and leaves. Mama then takes the girls and Kirsti by train to the seaside house of her brother Henrik, a fisherman near Gilleleje, from which Sweden can be seen across the water. Uncle Henrik and Mama announce a wake for a Great-aunt Birte whom Annemarie has never heard of. Annemarie realizes they are lying, and Henrik admits it in the barn, telling her that knowing less makes courage easier. Mourners arrive, among them the Rosens and Peter. When soldiers demand to see the body, Mama says the old woman died of typhus and offers to open the casket; the officer slaps her and leaves. Peter reads a psalm about the God who numbers the stars. The casket holds blankets and warm clothes; Peter gives a baby drops to keep it asleep and hands Mr. Rosen a packet that must reach Henrik. At dawn Annemarie finds Mama hurt on the path with a broken ankle and the packet lying in the grass. Disguised as a silly girl bringing her uncle his lunch, she runs through the woods and meets soldiers with dogs, who seize the packet and throw away a plain handkerchief. Henrik later explains that its scent ruined the dogs' noses, so the searchers found nothing under his deck, and the Rosens reached Sweden. Two years later the war ends. Annemarie learns that Lise died in the Resistance and that Peter has been executed, and she resolves to wear Ellen's mended necklace until the Rosens come home. Houghton Mifflin published the novel in 1989; it won the 1990 Newbery Medal, and an afterword explains which parts are historical.

Top Lessons

• Courage is doing what must be done while afraid

  Annemarie never stops being frightened, yet she holds the necklace, keeps silent at the wake and runs the packet past armed soldiers. Uncle Henrik's account of bravery as attention to the task at hand gives a child a usable picture of fortitude.

• A whole people can protect its neighbors

  The king's story in Chapter 2 grows into the plot of the book: Papa, Mama, Henrik, Peter and many unnamed Danes each do one part of the rescue. Lowry shows how ordinary jobs, such as a fisherman's boat or a mother's lunch basket, become means of saving lives.

• Friendship that costs something

  Annemarie and Ellen begin as schoolgirls racing on the street and end separated by the sea, bound by the necklace Annemarie keeps for her friend. Friendship in the book is measured by what each family risks for the other.

• Truth, secrets and protection

  The adults hide things from Annemarie, Mama lies to the soldiers, and Annemarie later pretends to be a silly child. The book lets children see the difference between deceiving a friend and shielding the innocent from those who mean to harm them.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The novel is not about medicine, but two drugs and one disease matter to its plot. The handkerchief Annemarie carries was, as Lowry's afterword explains, treated with a preparation of dried rabbit's blood and cocaine: the blood drew the police dogs and the cocaine, a local anesthetic, numbed their noses and spoiled their sense of smell for a time. Lowry credits Swedish scientists with the device; the details come from her afterword and should be checked against histories of the October 1943 rescue before being cited as fact. Peter also gives a refugee baby a few drops from a bottle so it will sleep through the crossing; the book does not name the drug. Mama turns away the soldiers at the wake by claiming the dead woman had typhus, a credible threat in 1940s Europe that occupying troops took seriously. The family's quiet, unspoken grief for Lise, and the late revelation of how she died, give a gentle picture of mourning in wartime.

• Chapter 10

  Mama tells the officer that the doctor warned of typhus and the casket should stay closed, then offers to open it herself.

• Chapter 11

  Peter gives the baby drops from a small bottle so it will not cry during the crossing.

• Chapters 15-16; Afterword

  The soldiers' dogs sniff the handkerchief; Henrik explains what it did, and the afterword describes the blood-and-cocaine powder.

• Chapters 2 and 17

  Lise's unopened trunk of wedding things, and the parents' final account of her death.