Number the Stars

By Lois Lowry

Retell: Ten year old Annemarie Johanson and her family are the average Danish family living during the War. But her best friend Ellen Rosen is Jewish so when the Nazis took over, Ellen has to pretend to be part of Annemarie’s family, she pretends to be Lise, Annemarie’s sister who died. The Nazis come and they don’t find anything so they go to Annemarie’s Uncle Henrik’s house. Peter, the boy who was going to get married to Lise, cam during the night with some more Jewish families. In the night, they go to Henrik’s boat because Sweden, the country free of Nazis was right across the water. Mr. Rosen was supposed to deliver a package to Henrik but didn’t get to so Annemarie did instead. Inside was a hankerchief that stopped the Nazis dogs from smelling the Jews. In the end they got safley to Sweden and Annemarie and her family went home, but Peter got killed and the War ended.

Relate: During my research I found that Sweden was a neutral country during the war, and that out of 8000 Danish Jews, only 150 were caught by the Nazis. Danish people saved the most Jews and treated them as equals. Also in a book I read that not only did Danes keep the Jews safe, but also did they keep their property safe. Annemarie kept Ellen’s necklace with David’s star on it.

Reflect: I think they should have made another book about after the war because that is also a very important time in history as well. They should have let Annemarie meet Ellen again too. But I didn’t like the book too much because the back says that Annemarie does sometihng very brave, and that got me really excited to read the book. But after I read it, to me nothing she did was that brave.