Number the Stars

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

Newbery Medal Winner, 1990

  

Exposition (the beginning of the story, establishment of setting and characters):  Lanky, blond, ten year old Annemarie Johansen, short, stocky, and Jewish Ellen Rosen, and curly-haired, outspoken Kirsti Johansen are running through the streets of Nazi occupied Copenhagen, Denmark during World War II, when they are halted by two German soldiers. 

Conflict (the problem(s) faced by the characters):  After learning that the Nazis had obtained a list of all of the Danish Jews attending the Rosens’ synogogue, Annemarie and her family must help Ellen’s family escape to Sweden, a neutral country not occupied by the Germans.   

Rising Action (events in the story leading up to the climax):  While Ellen’s parents visit some relatives, she stays with the Johansens and when they are awakened in the night by German soldiers looking for the Rosens, Papa pretends that Ellen is Lise, his oldest daughter who died in a car accident; the Johansens take Ellen to Uncle Henrik’s house in Gilleleje, where she meets up with her parents and Uncle Henrik hides them in a secret compartment in his boat.

Climax (the culmination of events in the story, point of highest reader interest):  After the Rosens and the other Jews leave with Uncle Henrik, Annemarie discovers an important packet that was dropped and left behind; as Annemarie quickly journeys through the forest to get the packet to Uncle Henrik, she is met by four armed German soldiers and two large dogs, and they go through her basket, but finding nothing alarming, they allow her to go on her journey.

Falling Action (events leading to the solving of the story’s problems):  After delivering the packet to Uncle Henrik, he takes her to the barn for a “milking lesson” and informs her that the Rosens were hidden on his boat and that the package she brought to him contained a treated handkerchief that tricks the dogs and ruins their sense of smell; Annemarie learns that if she had not delivered the package when she did, the Rosens would have been discovered by the soldiers who came to search his boat soon after.

Resolution (how events and problems of the story are solved): The war ends two years later, and Annemarie asks her father to fix Ellen’s gold necklace that she had hidden Lise’s blue trunk when the soldiers came that night, and she decides to wear the necklace until the Rosens came home.

Chapter books only (List two strong literary qualities displayed in the book and write one sentence about each quality): Lois Lowry, one of my favorite children’s authors, uses many literary qualities in her book, Number the Stars; one quality she uses is setting which transports the reader back in time to when the Germans did, in fact, occupy Denmark, and the reader is able to easily imagine what it would be like to live during that awful time in history.  Lowry also uses tension by making the reader feel scared for the Rosens and the other Jews and worried that the Johansens will be discovered by the Nazis in their quest to deliver the Rosens to safety in Sweden.