Giovanni

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the Stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Newbery Meda

Lois Lowry, in the “Afterword” to her Newbery Award winning Number the Stars, explained for her adolescent and preadolescent readers that the central character, Annemarie Johansen, was “a child of my imagination” built from stories she had heard from a close friend who grew up in Denmark during the Holocaust and as a representation of the “courage and integrity of the Danish people under the leadership of the king they loved so much, Christian X” during Nazi occupation. In telling the story from ten-year-old Annemarie’s perspective, Lowry also chose to emphasize the things that a young girl would notice such as the boots of the Nazi soldiers rather than their helmets. Annemarie also imagines herself to be Red Riding Hood with her basket of goodies for grandmother as she takes the secret package that can save the lives of Jews escaping Denmark for Sweden.

Drawing on primary texts to produce an exemplary novel accessible for ten to fourteen year olds, Lowry also emphasizes the role of the very young in the Danish resistance movement. One such young man, Kim Malthe-Bruun, who was executed by the Nazis, wrote to his mother on the night before his death, “the dream for you all, young and old, must be to create an ideal of human decency and not a narrow-minded and prejudiced one. That is the great gift our country hungers for, something every little peasant boy can look forward to, and with pleasure feel he is a part of—something he can work and fight for.” It was Lowry’s goal that Number the Stars would make her readers hunger for that goal of a “world of human decency.”

Active Reading/Learning Strategies:

Holocaust (Revolution) Graphic Organizer for Number the Stars

Writing in Response to Reading:

Number the Stars – Written Response Activity

At the beginning of the book, after the three girls encounter the German soldiers, Mrs. Rosen cautions them that “It is important to be one of the crowd, always. Be one of many. Be sure that they never have reason to remember your face.” Why do you think she emphasizes this to the girls? What are the dangers if they are remembered?

Annemarie knows about the Resistance fighters. Who are they, and why are they necessary now in Denmark? As you read the book, identify some of their activities.

Annemarie reflects on the fact that all the people around her have changed so very much. Some look much older. Why do you think this has happened?

Who is the secret “Great-aunt Birte”? Why is her death announced and observed?

Identify at least four other secrets that must be kept or lies that must be told to protect others in this story.

When Annemarie carries her basket of “lunch” to Uncle Henrik at this boat, she believes it is the food—the bread, apple, and cheese in the basket—that is important for her to deliver. She is very upset and worried that she has not succeeded with her job when the soldiers stop her. What was really the important item that she was carrying—the item that the soldiers did not detect? Uncle Henrik says to her, “because of you, Annemarie, everything is all right.” What does he mean?

How did Annemarie make herself feel braver during her delivery of the basket? What fairy tale character did she imagine herself to be?

What does Annemarie eventually find out had happened to Lise and Peter. Were they part of the Resistance? If you had lived at the same time, do you think you would have joined the Resistance? Why or why not?

What has Annemarie saved that belonged to Ellen? Do you think Ellen will return for Annemarie to give it back to her? What might have kept her from returning?

http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/number_the_stars.htm#Writing
WebQuest: http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/erinestone/webquest.html

Additional Non-U.S. Literature

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: The Modern Library, 1952. (European)

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (The Definitive Edition). Ed. Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler. Trans. Susan Massotty. New York: Doubleday, 1995. (European - Holocaust)

van der Rol, Ruud and Rian Verhoeven, eds. (in asso. with the Anne Frank House). Anne Frank Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance. Trans. Tony Langham and Plym Peters. New York: Viking, 1993. (European - Holocaust)

Filipovic, Zlata. Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. (Eastern European)

UNICEF. I dream of peace: Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. Preface by Maurice Sendak. Introduction by James P. Grant, Executive Director, UNICEF. (Yugoslavia)

Volavkova, Hana, ed. . . . I never saw another butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944, Expanded Second Edition by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. New York: Schocken Books, 1993. Foreword by Chaim Potok. Afterward by Vaclav Havel. (Eastern and Western European - Holocaust)

I have not seen a butterfly around here: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin. Prague: The Jewish Museum, 1993.

Wild, Margaret and Julie Vivas. Let the Celebrations Begin! Sydney: Ashton Scholastic Group, 1991. Short-Listed by the Children's Book Council of Australia. (European – Holocaust)

U.S. Literature

Chamberlin, Brewster and Marcia Feldman. The Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps 1945: Eyewitness Accounts of the Liberators. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 1987.

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier. New York: Dial Books, 1973. (Holocaust)

Hesse, Karen. Letters from Rifka. New York: The Trumpet Club, 1992. (Russia)

Kerr, M. E. Gentlehands. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. (Anti-Semitism - Holocaust)

Lasky, Kathryn. The Night Journey. New York: Puffin Books, 1981. (Russia)

Levitin, Sonia. Journey to America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985. (Emigrants from the Holocaust)

Levitin, Sonia. Silver Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. (Holocaust - Europe)

Meltzer, Milton. Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust. New York: Harper Collins, 1988. (Eastern European and Western European - Holocaust)

Reis, Johanna. The Journey Back. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. (European - Holocaust)

Reis, Johanna. The Upstairs Room. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. Newbery Honor Book. (European - Holocaust)

Roth-Hano, Renee. Touch Wood: A Girlhood in Occupied France. New York: Penguin Books, 1988. (France - Holocaust)

Sachs, Marilyn. A Pocket Full of Seeds. New York: Puffin Books, 1973. American Library Associaton Notable Book. (France - Holocaust)

Sender, Ruth Minsky. To Life. New York: Penguin Books, 1988. (Poland - Holocaust)

Siegal, Aranka. Grace in the Wilderness: After the Liberation 1945-48. New York: Penguin Books, 1985. (Hungary - Holocaust)

Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary, 1939-1944. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1981. Newbery Honor Book. (Hungary - Holocaust)

Taylor, Kressmann. Address Unknown. Cincinnati: Story Press, 1995. (European/US - Holocaust)

Toll, Nelly S. Behind the Secret Window: A Memoir of a Hidden Childhood during World War Two. New York: Dial Books, 1993. International Reading Association Award.(Poland - Holocaust)

Music

Holocaust Requiem: Kaddish for Terezin (A Liturgical Oratorio). By Ronald Senator, based on poems and diaries of children who died at Theresienstadt. Recorded live in Moscow, October 4, 1992.

Terezin: The Music 1941-44. (Chamber Music, Songs and Opera).

Krakow Ghetto Notebook. Mordecai Gebirtig. Daniel Kempin, voice and guitar. Dimitry Reznik, violin. (Written from 1920 - 1942)

Web Sites

Anne Frank Online
http://annefrank.com/

Anne Frank Education Trust News and Update
http://www.afet.org.uk/

The Anne Frank Home
http://www.channels.nl/amsterdam/annefran.html

Anne Frank and Her Family
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/6804

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/

Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation
http://www.vhf.org/

Survivors of the Holocaust
http://TBSsuperstation.com/survivors/

Cybrary of the Holocaust
http://remember.org

A Visit to Terezin
http://photo.net/bp/terezin.html