number the stars summary essay

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Number The Stars Summary and Key Themes

“Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry, published in 1989 brings to life the experiences of Annemarie Johansen, a 10-year-old girl in World War II-era Copenhagen.

The story unfolds in 1943, with Copenhagen under German occupation. Annemarie and her friend, Ellen Rosen, find their lives drastically altered by the presence of Nazi soldiers. The danger escalates when Jewish businesses begin to close, and Ellen, being Jewish, faces imminent threats.

Annemarie’s family, determined to protect Ellen, pretends she is their deceased daughter Lise to evade suspicion.

As the narrative progresses, the Johansens make a daring plan to transport Ellen and her family to safety. 

They utilize a fake funeral as a cover to gather Jewish families, including the Rosens, for an escape to Sweden aboard a fishing boat. The plot thickens when Annemarie discovers a crucial packet dropped by Mr. Rosen, meant for the boat. 

Braving a tense encounter with Nazi soldiers, she successfully delivers the packet, which contains a special handkerchief designed to impair the scent-tracking ability of Nazi dogs.

The novel ends on a hopeful note, two years after the war, with the Johansens eagerly awaiting the return of the Rosens. 

Throughout the story, Lois Lowry masterfully balances a simple writing style with a somber, yet hopeful tone. She explores deep themes like the essence of bravery, the perils and benefits of ignorance, and the stark contrast between fairy tales and harsh realities. 

1. The Essence of Bravery and Sacrifice

The novel intricately explores the concept of bravery, not just as grandiose acts of heroism, but also through small, everyday actions underpinned by immense courage. 

Annemarie’s journey is a prime example, showcasing how bravery manifests in various forms – from her family’s decision to hide Ellen, a Jewish girl, to Annemarie’s daring delivery of the crucial packet to her uncle’s boat. 

These acts of bravery, coupled with the willingness to make sacrifices, highlight how individuals, including children, can make significant impacts during times of adversity. 

This theme is further accentuated by the character development of Annemarie, who transitions from an innocent child to someone who understands the weight of her actions in the broader context of the war.

2. The Reality of War and Its Impact on Innocence

The book thoughtfully explores the impact of war on the innocence of children, set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Denmark. 

Through the eyes of young Annemarie, readers witness the stark transformation of a once-peaceful life into a world filled with uncertainty and fear. 

The narrative addresses how war forces children to confront harsh realities far beyond their years, eroding their innocence. 

This theme is particularly poignant in the portrayal of the children’s interactions with Nazi soldiers and the anxiety that pervades their daily lives. 

It also touches on the concept of childhood naivety, as seen in Annemarie’s initial lack of full comprehension of the dangers surrounding her and Ellen.

3. The Strength and Importance of Family and Friendship

Central to the novel is the theme of the unbreakable bonds of family and friendship, especially in times of crisis. 

The Johansen family’s unwavering commitment to protecting Ellen, despite the inherent risks, underscores the profound strength of these bonds. 

The theme is vividly illustrated through the sacrifices that characters are willing to make for one another, transcending mere friendship to a deeper sense of familial responsibility and loyalty. 

This is not limited to blood relations, as seen in the Johansens’ extension of their protective umbrella to Ellen and her family. The narrative also shows how these bonds provide emotional support and a sense of hope amidst the desolation of war.

Final Thoughts

“Number the Stars” is not just a tale of wartime survival; it’s a poignant coming-of-age story about courage, friendship, and the moral choices in the face of evil.

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Number the Stars Summary

Number the Stars is set on a World War II timeline; the year is 1943 and the place is Copenhagen, Denmark. Although Germany has invaded the country, the Danish are stubbornly resistant to the anti-Semitic policies of the Nazi and quietly still follow the ideology of King Christian X. The narrative is seen from the point of view of ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen who lives in Copenhagen with her parents and younger sister Kirsti, who is five years old. She had an older sister named Lise who passed away from a hit-and-run case two years prior, only a few days before she was to be married. Annemarie’s best friend is a Jewish girl named Ellen Rosen. Although life has drastically changed for the Danish people in general since the German invasion three years ago, the Jewish community is seen to be suffering the most. 

One day, while walking home from school, the three girls, Annemarie, her sister Kirsti and Ellen are intruded by two Nazi men who ask them a few questions. The girls are saved due to Kirsti’s rude behavior which fortunately the German soldiers find cute rather than insulting. The two older girls are shaken and retell the incident to their respective parents after arriving home. The mothers, Mrs. Johansen and Mrs. Rosen become frantic with worry and forbid the girls from conversing with the Nazis in any way.  

A preview of life in German-invaded Denmark is given. Annemarie describes the lack of food and electricity in the streets, streets which are monitored by Nazis at all times of the day and night. People are in fear to risk an open rebellion although there is a Danish Resistance which is silently fighting back against Germany by helping Jews flee the country. A member of the Danish Resistance is Peter Neilsen who had been the fiancé of Annemarie’s older sister Lise. He regularly visits the Johansens although as Annemarie notices, since recently he has become busy with his work in the resistance. 

Weeks pass by after the Nazi incident and one day, the three girls are sent to repair Kirsti’s button-torn jacket at Mrs. Hirsch’s store. When the girls arrive, they are surprised to see that the shop has been shut down due to the fact that Mrs. Hirsch is Jewish. After hearing this news, Mrs. Johansen becomes even more worried and that same night, Peter visits their home. Annemarie is brought into the living room while the adults talk and readers can catch from the conversation the adults have with her that they are all in one way or other actively assisting the Jewish by keeping them safe. At one time, Peter remarks that things are only going to get even harder for the Danish Jews from now on.

Soon, the Jewish New Year is upon them all, an event Ellen is very excited about. She speaks of the plans she has made about the celebrations but on that day, Mrs. Johansen reveals to the children that the Rosens are going away for a while and that Ellen is to stay with Annemarie and her family for the time being. Mr. Johansen further explains the situation by stating that the Germans are beginning to round up the Jews and send them to prisons so the Rosens have to go away with Peter into safety. They cannot take Ellen with them for the time being who will have to pretend to be a Johansen.

The Rosens go away and the same night, the Nazis come looking for them to the Johansens’ place. Although the family denies having any knowledge about their whereabouts, the German police are suspicious and decide to search the house anyway. They question Ellen’s identity since she has dark hair while the Johansens are all blond. However, Mr. Johansen shows the Gestapo a picture of young Lise who had dark hair too to pass off Ellen as Lise, his daughter. 

Shaken by the previous night’s incident, Mrs. Johansen keeps the girls from school the next morning. Instead, she takes them to visit her brother, Henrik who lives in Gilleleje, a village near the sea that joins Denmark and neutral Sweden. They take a train ride to their destination and are once again apprehended by a few German soldiers who attempt to manipulate Mrs. Johansen into admitting that she is Jewish by asking her if she plans on celebrating the Jewish New Year. She sees through the ploy and says no, although Kirsti nearly gives Ellen away by revealing her Jewish ethnicity although she realizes her error at the last second. 

They reach the village and the girls enjoy a beautiful day basking under the beauty of Gilleleje. Annemarie promises Ellen that she has kept her Star of David necklace safely, an ornament Annemarie had ripped from her friend’s neck the night before. The next day, Henrik reveals to the family that his great-aunt Birte has passed away and that a wake shall be arranged for them to mourn her. Since Annemarie is aware of the fact that there is no great aunt Birte in their family, she confronts her uncle about his apparent lie. Uncle Henrik asks Annemarie to go along with the lie since it is easier to be brave if you do not have all the facts. Later on, young Annemarie realizes what her uncle meant by these words. 

A wake is arranged for Aunty Birte and a small number of guests arrive to attend the event, along with Mr. and Mrs. Rosen accompanied by Peter Neilson. Alarmed by the number of people in one residence, soon the German soldiers arrive in order to investigate the matter. Mrs. Johansen shows the soldiers the casket and explains that they are mourning a death. The soldiers are perplexed since it is not in the Danish custom to arrange to mourn with the casket closed. They demand to see the remains of the dead body but quickly retreat after they are told that the deceased had died of typhus and her body may still contain some of the disease’s bacteria. The Germans leave afterward although just to be assured of free of suspicion, Peter reads aloud a psalm. Eventually, the casket is opened, revealed to contain warm clothes for the guests who are in reality all Danish Jews attempting to flee from the country. 

Mrs. Johansen and Peter take the Jews in small numbers near the sea where they will travel by Henrik’s boat all across to Sweden. Now aware of the real operation, Annemarie is unable to sleep all night and waits in apprehension for her mother. At the crack of dawn, she suddenly wakes up and finds her mother lying in pain near a way into the woods. She explains that she had tripped on her way back home after delivering the last of the refugees to the boat but dared not cry out for help in fear of giving away the operation. Annemarie helps her mother up and into the house and on the way, she finds a packet on the ground. It was supposed to be given to Uncle Henrik; without the packet, the operation is doomed to fail. Mrs. Johansen instructs Annemarie to hide the packet in a picnic basket and deliver the basket to Uncle Henrik before they have to leave for Sweden. 

Annemarie keeps her head down and prays that no German sees her on the way. She repeatedly narrates the story of the Red Riding Hood to herself in order to distract her from the possibility that the ending of her story may not be as happy as the fable’s. She finally reaches the harbor and only then does she get caught by a bunch of German soldiers and their dogs. They search her lunch basket and find the packet, which when opened is shown to contain only a handkerchief. The dogs sniff the packet but there is no evidence of any funny business. So the Nazis let Annemarie go who safely delivers the basket to her uncle. Later on, Henrik reveals to Annemarie that the packet contained a special type of drugs that rendered the dogs incapable of finding the smell of the Jews hidden in a hidden section of the boat. She thanks Annemarie for her pivotal part in helping the Jewish people safely escape. 

The timeline shifts up two years to show that the war is over and Denmark is finally free from the torments of the German soldiers. The finality of the characters is shown. Peter Nielson had been caught by the Nazis and executed for being a member of the Danish Resistance. Annemarie also learns that her sister Lise was also a member of the resistance and that her death was not an accident, rather it was engineered by the Nazis for her active role in rebelling against the German invasion. Now that war has ended, Annemarie awaits the return of the Rosens although there is no concrete evidence that they have survived after all. Nevertheless, Annemarie keeps Ellen’s necklace safe as she had promised.

Author: Cody Owens

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Number the Stars

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Privilege, Sacrifice, and Solidarity

At the heart of Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars is a story of what it means to wield social power and privilege. As her Nazi-occupied hometown of Copenhagen, Denmark, grows more and more hostile towards its Jewish residents, ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her non-Jewish family step up and sacrifice their own safety in order to help their Jewish friends and neighbors escape. Annemarie summons the courage to risk her own safety—and indeed her social privilege—to…

Despite being a children’s novel, Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars makes a complicated argument about what it means to be brave. Throughout the novel, Lowry creates tension between the idea that bravery comes from knowing the risk at hand and doing the hard thing anyway, and the opposing idea that one is able to act more bravely when ignorant of what’s at stake. She ultimately argues that true bravery is not based on whether one…

Reality vs. Fantasy

Stories and fairy tales play an important role throughout Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars . Annemarie Johansen tells her younger sister Kirsti fairy tales to lull her to sleep each night—and even comforts herself in times of fear or danger by comparing herself to figures of fantasy such as Little Red Riding-Hood or distant, storied figures from real life, such as the Danish king, Christian . By weaving in and out of real life and…

Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen are thick as thieves, and have been all throughout their childhoods. Their mothers, too, are close friends who get together every day for an afternoon coffee—and keep up with the tradition even when the closest thing to coffee left in Copenhagen is hot water steeped with herbs. Even though Annemarie has a younger sister, Kirsti , she still feels a void in her life when it comes…

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Number the Stars

by Lois Lowry

Number the stars themes.

At the beginning of Number the Stars , Annemarie loves Denmark but does not yet understand the true meaning of patriotism. As she matures over the course of the novel, however, she begins witness the harm the Germans are inflicting on her country. She realizes that it is vital for everyone, including young people like herself, to make certain sacrifices to keep their fellow Danes safe. Papa has taught Annemarie about patriotism and national pride since her early childhood. She recalls his statement that every Dane would die for King Christian X. When Annemarie sees the Gestapo terrorizing the Jewish families she knows, she realizes that she is willing to sacrifice her personal safety in order to help her community.

Observation

Annemarie is an exceptionally observant child. Although the adults in her life expect girls her age to focus on dolls and giggling with their friends, Annemarie is very aware of what is going on around her. She notices when her parents use code language to cover up their Resistance activities. For example, she realizes that when Papa is talking to Uncle Henrik about a carton of cigarettes, he is actually talking about Ellen, a Jewish refugee. Annemarie also knows immediately that Uncle Henrik is lying when he announces Great-Aunt Birte 's death. Annemarie's powers of observation save her life at the end of the novel, when she escapes the German soldiers by behaving like Kirsti would in the same situation.

Pride appears in many forms throughout Number the Stars . Annemarie and her family are proud of King Christian and Denmark. The Rosens are proud of their Jewish identity and culture. When Annemarie sees the Rosens preparing to leave for Sweden, Annemarie learns an important lesson about pride. Although the Rosens have lost their jobs, their possessions, and even the physical markers of their Jewish identity, they still carry themselves with dignity. From their example, Annemarie learns that pride comes from within, and not from external objects or achievements.

Annemarie enjoys a very close bond with her parents, her Uncle Henrik, and her younger sister, Kirsti. However, her parents also encourage family-like relationships with close friends, including Peter Neilsen and the Rosens. The Johansens have maintained strong ties with Peter, even after Lise died, because they know how important Peter was to Lise. Annemarie learns that family is about more than blood when she and her parents risk their lives to help the Rosens escape to Sweden. Although they are not related, the Rosens have lived next to the Johansens for years and are like family to them.

Early in the novel, Annemarie watches in awe as Peter, Mama , and Papa courageously stand up to hostile German soldiers. She feels that she could never live up to their example and is grateful that she will never have to. However, when Mama injures her ankle, Annemarie is the only one who will be able to ensure that the rescue mission succeeds. In this desperate moment, Annemarie calls upon her own reserves of strength and courage. Although she is afraid, she keeps herself calm by telling herself fairy tales. Ultimately, she successfully delivers the packet to Uncle Henrik. Later, Uncle Henrik explains to Annemarie that courage is not about being fearless––it is about doing what you have to do even if you are scared.

Self-sacrifice

By the end of Number the Stars , every character has had to make a sacrifice for the greater good. The Rosens must give up their belongings and move to a foreign country in order to protect themselves and their young daughter, Ellen. Mama and Papa put their children's lives at risk by helping Danish Jews to escape to Sweden. Even little Annemarie loses her childlike innocence when she risks her life to help her friend. Uncle Henrik and Peter put themselves in mortal danger to save the lives of the country's Jews––even those they don't know personally. They are fighting for a cause that is more important to them than their lives. Ultimately, Lise and Peter die for the Resistance - and remain a symbol for Danish solidarity and courage after the war is over.

Responsibility

Growing up in occupied Denmark forces Annemarie to mature faster than she would have to in more peaceful times. She starts to feel a sense of responsibility for the people around her. She displays her protective instincts early in the novel when she, Kirsti, and Ellen face off against the German soldiers. Throughout the novel, Annemarie does her best to preserve Kirsti's innocence by telling her stories and sheltering her from the harsh realities of the war. As time goes by, Annemarie's sense of responsibility expands to include Ellen and Mama. Annemarie helps protect Ellen from the Germans and takes her Star of David necklace for safekeeping during the war. After Mama breaks her ankle, Annemarie helps her to safety and even makes a dangerous delivery to ensure the success of the rescue.

Number the Stars Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Number the Stars is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What was the real reason for Great Aunt Birte's death?

Aunt Birte didn't die.... because she didn't exist.

And Annemarie was quite, quite certain, though she said nothing. There was no Great-aunt Birte. She didn't exist.

At the beginning of Number the Stars , Annemarie loves Denmark but does not yet understand the true meaning of patriotism. As she matures over the course of the novel, however, she begins witness the harm the Germans are inflicting on her country....

What disturbs mama and annemarie when they find the packet for uncle henrick

They thought something had happened to Uncle Henrik. Inside the packet was a handkerchief. The handkerchief would attract the dogs then make them lose their sense of smell, so they would not smell the Jews hiding in the boats. The Ingeborg is...

Study Guide for Number the Stars

Number the Stars study guide contains a biography of Lois Lowry, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Number the Stars
• Number the Stars Summary
• Character List

Lesson Plan for Number the Stars

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Number the Stars
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Number the Stars Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Number the Stars

• Introduction

Number the Stars

72 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-10

Chapters 11-13

Chapters 14-17

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

What is the significance of the chapter titles? Why might Lowry have chosen these phrases for special emphasis?

What is the significance of the phrase “number the stars” in the context of the novel? Use examples from the text to develop your argument.

Compare and contrast Annemarie and Ellen. How does the reader's understanding of these characters change throughout the novel? What does this show us about the book's themes?

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