Number The Stars

Today I’d like to introduce the book called “number the stars” by Lois Lowry. This book won  a Newberry metal just like Kirakira did. The Newberry metal is given to the author of "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children."  Proposed in 1921 and named for John Newberry, a 18th-century English publisher of juvenile books , it  is the first children's book award in the world.

“Number the stars” is a book about bravery. It tells a story about a 10 year old Danish girl, Annemarie, who helped to save her best friend’s family, a Jewish family, to escape from the Nazis.  

Annemarie and  her best friend Ellen are neighbours, and they lived in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen. Annemarie had 2 sisters, Lise and Kirsti.  Kirsti, the youngest one,  to Annemarie’s prospective, is very annoying.  Lise was the oldest sister, but she was hit by a car and died 2 weeks before her wedding. Lise’s husband-to-be, Peter still acts like a brother to Annemarie even after Lise’s accident. 

It was 1943 during World War II, and Denmark had been occupied by the Nazis for 3 years.  At the beginning, life was limited but somewhat normal.  All of a sudden, the Nazis declared they would be rounding up all the Jewish and sending them to harsh camps.  To prevent the Rosens, Ellen’s family, from being taken away, Peter snuck Ellen’s parents away, and Ellen hid in Annemarie’s house, pretending to be Lise. Ellen has dark brown hair, which caused  suspicion from the Nazis.  So later,  Annemarie’s mom brought the girls to her brother’s home in a small village by the sea.  

Annemarie’s uncle, Henrik, is a fisherman.  Fishermen in this small village have been sneaking out Jews in secret compartments in their boats, and taking them to Sweden, an un-occupied country by the Nazis. 

One night Peter brought Ellen’s parents and some other Jews to uncle Henrik’s house. They bundled in warm clothes  and headed out in 2 groups to uncle Henrik’s boat. The first group was led by Peter and the second was led by Annemarie’s mom.  Before  they left Peter passed a very important packet to Mr. Rosen and asked him to bring it to Henric. But, Mr. Rosen tripped on a loose step, without anyone noticing, the packet fell out of his pocket. 

On Annemarie’s mom’s way back, she tripped in the darkness and broke her ankle. When she finally got back home, they found the packet that  Mt. Rosen had dropped when he fell. Because Annemarie’s mom could not walk anymore and Annemarie volunteered to bring this packet to uncle Henrik. Because she could  run into German Nazis soldiers,  she hid the packet at the bottom of a basket and pretended to be sending lunch to her uncle before he left dock. It was  4:30 in the morning and it’s very dark outside.  Annemarie was scared, and she pretended to be telling the story of “little red riding hood ” to her sister, Kirsti. When she was stopped by some soldiers, she acted in the way Kirsti would behave and successfully fooled the soldiers and passed the packet to uncle Henrik.  

To prevent the Jews from escaping to Sweden, the Nazis used dogs to detect human scent  on departing boats. The packet that delivered by Annemarie was a hankerchief soaked with a special drug which attracts dogs and ruins their sense of smell.  With this hankerchief, uncle Henrik safely got the Jews to Sweden.