Number the Stars

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Awards: Newbery, 1990; National Jewish Libraries, 1990.

 

There are many books written for young adults about the Holocaust, all in various degrees of depth about that era, but Number the Stars is definitely one that tells the story of the Nazi reign without a lot of horrific detail. The story engages the reader to be right there with Annemarie and Ellen as they try to find a way to get Ellen’s family out of Denmark. Telling the story of how some Jewish families were hidden and able to escape through the friendship of these two girls kept me reading until the very end. I found it to be a very moving, suspenseful, and sad book, but one that I have used in my classroom when teaching Anne Frank. Rereading it again didn’t diminish the edge of your seat feeling. Even though the characters are fictional, knowing the historical content is true makes the story easy for young adult readers to empathize and understand what the girls are going through and feeling, and a good bridge into the history of that era.