Number the Stars

By: Lois Lowry

Narrated by: Blair Brown

ALA Notable Children's Book, 1991

Arkansas Charlie May Simon Master List, 1991

Kansas William White Master List, 1991

Kentucky Bluegrass Master List, 1990

Maine Student Book Award Winner, 1993

Massachusetts Children's Book Award, shortlisted

Newbery Medal Winner

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year Winner, 1989

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner, Association of Jewish Libraries

Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943, and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated", Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life.

Click here to see a full list of Newbery Medal winners and Newbery Honor winners.©2004 Lois Lowry (P)2004 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

“A story of Denmark and the Danish people, whose Resistance was so effective in saving their Jews.”—School Library Journal, Starred

Students & I Loved

As a middle school teacher in a sped/rsp class, I loved being able to front load students on a historical topic, introduce them to a meaningful story, and allow them to feel the same emotions one might feel watching a story unfold, each plot element at a time. Some kids fell in love with the topic and went in to read more books and others felt the beginning was slow but powered through. My students got exposure to a mature topic in a tasteful way. The ending made me emotional. The Afterward answered many questions for students and gave closure. I love this book and plan to read it again.

As relevant as ever

A Jewish family in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen facing certain death, is aided by brave Danes willing to risk their lives to save their fellow countrymen.

A young girl finds the courage to help save her best friend’s life.

Exquisitely narrated, this taught and timeless tale of heroism stands as a reminder of what good citizenship means and entails for every age including our own.

Sad but true

I listened to this with my 12 year old son. Throughout listening he asked so many questions- many of which brought me to tears. How impactful that this story can help bring out the courage of what he would think to do if he was in the situation. Once again,Thank you Lois Lowry.

No one would regret taking time for this important story

I remember reading this in fifth grade but I don’t remember what it was about. I just reread it in a day for my son’s exposition and composition assignments. It’s so good! I think this is a great book to teach kids quality adjectives and strong verbs. As far as the story goes, it got in my head and messed with me which is why gave it such a good rating. It’s definitely worth a rainy afternoon to read… Or housework to listen to.

It was a great book, and a great audiobook!

Amazin. Absolutely Amazin. It was read perfectly. And it was a great book to listen to

A pretty good book all round

This was not one of my favorite books, yet it is a generally well - told story all the same. There is not much else that I can say other than pretty good book.

So great!

Loved this book! it makes you really ponder what you are willing to sacrifice to do whats right and appreciate what you do have. Touches your heart

I can't wait to share this storywith my 5th grade!

My goal this school year is to share a story with my 5th graders in a book club format. I love how the story of these characters aligns with some of the struggles of another book we are reading, Esperanza Rising.

Used it for my class and they loved it…

I used this book with my 5th graders and they loved it, the lady reading it is really nice and really good set of tone on her voice. Students were able to follow the chapters and were intrigued by the story.

Great!

This book was very short but enjoyable.The narration was very good!It made me fell as if I was there.