NUMBER THE STARS
By Lois Lowry
Houghton Mifflin, 1989
Okay, folks, it is library book sale week. That means everyone in my house is hoarding petty cash and dreaming of spectacular bargain book finds. (Will they have the long-sought after CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE PERILOUS PLOT OF PROFESSOR POOPYPANTS? Will we luck out and find that illustrated, hardcover edition of THE HOBBIT? Oh, remember the year we found that practically new, lap-sized edition of CHARLOTTE’S WEB?) It also means we are trying to finish reading the spectacular stack of bargain books we bought last year. And I submit to you now that any stack of books containing a copy of Lois Lowry’s NUMBER THE STARS—bargain bought or otherwise—is, indeed, spectacular.
I listened to this book on tape two years ago and bought my tattered copy shortly afterward, at last year’s library book sale. I was anxious to read it to my kids, but my boys were hesitant. They are into judging books by covers; covers that feature a girl, as this one does, are not cool. But NUMBER THE STARS is set during the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. This has a certain appeal for eight year-old boys and they agreed to give it a try. They were hooked from the moment early in Chapter 1 when a German soldier stepped onto a Danish sidewalk and shouted “Halte!” at ten year-old Annemarie Johansen and her friend Ellen Rosen, who were racing each other home from school.
“Annemarie stared up. There were two of them. That meant two helmets, two sets of cold eyes glaring at her, and four tall shiny boots planted firmly on the sidewalk, blocking her path to home. And it meant two rifles, gripped in the hands of the soldiers.”
The looks on my sons’ faces at this moment were the same looks I imagine Annemarie and Ellen must have worn. I saw fear and shock and a sprinkle of carefully concealed outrage. I was left, yet again, in awe of the power of the written word. Although I tried hard to read the book with an eye toward craft (Lowry is a master and I am but a student), I was swept up in the story. More than once I cried. And my sweet, innocent boys were caught up in a history they can barely understand. For days after we finished the book there were questions, difficult ones, about German soldiers and Danish Jews and the Resistance and friendship and risk. They were tough conversations and I am sure my answers fed their shock and fear. How could an honest conversation about such topics do anything else? But as we talked, shock and fear were overshadowed by outrage, and for this I am grateful.
Thank you, Lois Lowry, for giving the world such a beautiful and important book.
Best,
Loree