Number the Stars

Title: "Number the Stars"
Author: Lois Lowry
Publisher: Yearling Books. 1989
Grade: 4th-5th
Genre: historical fiction novel

The story begins with with Annemarie and her friend Ellen, who is a Jew, who are racing down the street and they are stopped by some Nazis. A little while later, Ellen is forced to come and stay with Annemarie and her family, because the Rosens had to leave with Peter to escape being sent away since they were Jewish. That same night soldiers come searching for the Rosens and when they don't find them they come to the Johansen's apartment. They search the whole apartment and eventually come into the bedroom where Ellen and Annemarie are. They play Ellen off as their third daughter and the soldiers leave. Eventually Mama takes Ellen, Annemarie, and Kirsti to her brother's Henrik's house. Here they are safe! One night a casket arrives and they pretend to be mourning for their Great Aunt Birte but there is really no one in the casket. All the guests are Jews who Peter and Mama takes to Uncle Henrik's boat. When Mama gets back, she has broken her ankle. Mama finds the package that Mr. Rosen forgot to take to Henrik, so Annemarie carries a basket with the package, bread, cheese, and an apple to Henrik. After the Jews are safe in Sweden, Henrik tells Annemarie that the package contained a hankerchief that had some medicine on it so that when the dogs smelled it, it would knock off their scent so they couldn't smell the people who were hiding. At the end of the book, the Johansens are back home and Annemarie finds Ellen's Star of David necklace and says she will wear it until Ellen comes home.

I enjoyed this book. It helped give me insight to what it would be like to be a ten year old girl who is hiding with a friend and her family while hiding from the Nazis. I loved how Annemarie and her family didn't judge the Rosens for being Jewish or turn their backs on their friends. I think this would be a great book for my students to see how people are different than them and they should never turn their backs on their friends. I also loved how Uncle Henrik and Peter and Lise would just help the Jews and be in the Resistence and them not get anything out of it.

I would definitely use this book in a Holocaust unit with my students. I would have my students to read this book chapter by chapter and then have my students to keep a journal telling about the chapter and writing a summary and then some questions that they have about what was going on and then they could ask some critical thinking questions as well. I could also have my students to form groups to where each group had a notecard with a question on it and they would have 3-5 minutes to answer it. At the end of the alotted time they would switch with the next group and continue that until each group had had all the questions. At the end of this activity I would go around and have each group to tell their answer to that particular question.