A Book Report: Number the Stars

In Number the Stars by Louis Lowry, ten-year-old Annemarie and her friend Ellen Rosen are waiting for World War II to end. In Copenhagen, Denmark, everywhere they look, there is a Nazi soldier ready to mock them. The Jews are being killed day by day, and suddenly the Nazis find out Ellen is a Jew. Annemarie and her family do everything they can do to keep Ellen’s family safe. As Ellen tries to blend in to Annemarie’s family, both Ellen and Annemarie must learn courage and bravery if they want to survive.

This story begins when Ellen and Annemarie are walking home from school one day. When the girls are stopped by Nazi soldiers on the street, they see just how cruel the soldiers really are. Later in this book, Annemarie and Ellen move into Annemarie’s uncle’s house. There they learn to have faith and trust that everything will turn out okay. Another scene where Annemarie must practice bravery is when she is sent into the woods with a package to give to her uncle who is at the dock in his fishing boat, waiting to smuggle Ellen and her family out of Denmark. She doesn’t know what is in the package or where it came from. As she is delivering this package, the Nazi soldiers stop her. Annemarie decides to act immature like her little sister Kristi would act. Acting like this saves Ellen and other Jews and gets them safely to Sweden. 

 

In this book, I learned that we should always stand up for what is right, even if it means getting hurt. Louis Lowry made Annemarie a very lovable character, because she stood up for her friend no matter what happened to her. She made it so clear that you should be brave and stand up for what is right even if it means getting in trouble. This book is a page turner – it will leave readers wanting to keep reading until the very end of the book. Number the Stars has been given many awards including the Newberry Award Medal, and has been named the book of the year by the School Library Journal.  

– By Leigh Collins