Number the Stars

By Lois Lowry

Chapter 1: Why Are You Running?

1. “I’ll race you to the corner, Ellen!” 2. Annemarie

adjusted the thick leather pack on her back so that

her schoolbooks balanced evenly. 3. “Ready?” 4. She

looked at her best friend.

5. Ellen made a face. 6. “No,” she said, laughing. 7. “You

know I can’t beat you—my legs aren’t as long. 8. Can’t

we just walk, like civilized people?” 9. She was a stocky

ten-year-old, unlike lanky Annemarie.

10. “We have to practice for the athletic meet on

Friday—I know I’m going to win the girl’s race this

week. 11. I was second last week, but, but I’ve been practic-

ing every day. 12. Come on, Ellen,” Annemarie pleaded,

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eyeing the distance to the next corner of the Copen-

hagen street “Please?”

13. Ellen hesitated, then nodded and shifted her own

rucksack of books against her shoulders. 14. “Oh, all

right. Ready,” she said.

15. “Go!” shouted Annemarie, and the two girls were

off, racing along the residential sidewalk. 16. Anne-

marie’s silvery blond hair flew behind her, and

Ellen’s dark pigtails bounced against her shoulders.

17. “Wait for me!” wailed little Kirsti, left behind, but

the two older girls weren’t listening.

18. Annemarie outdistanced her friend quickly, even

thought one of her shoes came untied as she sped

along the street called Osterbrogade, past the small

shops and cafes of her neighborhood here in northeast

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Copenhagen. 19. Laughing, she skirted an elderly lady

in black who carried a shopping bag made of string. 20. A

young woman pushing a baby in a carriage moved

aside to make way. 21. The corner was just ahead.

22. Annemarie looked up, panting, just as she reached

the corner. 23. Her laughter stopped. 24. Her heart seemed

to skip a beat.

25. “Halte!” the soldier ordered in a stern voice.

26. The German word was as familiar as it was fright-

ening. 27. Annemarie had heard it often enough before,

but it had never been directed at her until now.

28. Behind her, Ellen also slowed and stopped. 29. Far

back, little Kirsti was plodding along, her face in a

pout because the girls hadn’t waited for her.

30. Annemarie stared up. 31. There were two of them.

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32. That meant tow helmets, two sets of cold eyes

glaring at her, and four tall shiny boots planted firmly

on the sidewalk, blocking her path to home.

33. And it meant two rifles, gripped in the hands of the

soldiers. 34. She stared at the rifles first. 35. Then, finally,

she looked into the face of the soldier who had

ordered her to halt.

36. “Why are you running?” the harsh voice asked.

37. His Danish was very poor. 38. Three years, Annemarie

thought with contempt. 39. Three years, they’ve been in

our country, and still they can’t speak our language.

40. “I was racing with my friend,” she answered

politely. 41. “We have races at school every Friday, and

I want to do well, so I—“ Her voice trailed away, the

sentence unfinished. 42. Don’t talk so much, she told

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herself. 43. Just answer them, that’s all.

43. She glanced back. 44. Ellen was motionless on the

sidewalk, a few yards behind her. Farther back,

Kirsti was still sulking, and walking slowly toward the

corner. 45. Nearby, a woman had come to the doorway of

a shop and was standing silently, watching.

46. One of the soldiers, the taller one, moved toward

her. 47. Annemarie recognized him as the one she and

Ellen always called, in whispers, “the Giraffe” be-

cause of his height and the long neck that extended

from his stiff collar. 48. He and his partner were always

on this corner.

49. He prodded the corner of her backpack with the

stock of his rifle. 50. Annemarie trembled. 51. “What is in

here?” he asked loudly. 52. From the corner of her eye,

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she saw the shopkeeper move quietly back into the

shadows of the doorway, out of sight.

53. “Schoolbooks,” she answered truthfully.

54. “Are you a good student?” the soldier asked. 55. He

seemed to be sneering.

56. “Yes.”

57. “What is your name?”

58. “Annemarie Johansen.”

59. “Your friend—is she a good student, too?”

60. He was looking beyond her, at Ellen, who hadn’t moved.

61. “Annemarie looked back, too and saw that Ellen’s

face, usually rosy-cheeked, was pale, and her dark

eyes were wide.

62. She nodded at the soldier. 63. “Better than me,” she

said.

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64. “What is her name?”

65. “Ellen.”

66. “And who is this?” he asked, looking to Anne-

marie’s side. 67. Kirsti had appeared there suddenly,

scowling at everyone.

68. “My little sister.” 69. She reached down for Kirsti’s

hand, but Kirsti, always stubborn, refused it and put

her hands on her hips defiantly.

70. The soldier reached down and stroked her little

sister’s short, tangled curls. 71. Stand still, Kirsti, Anne-

marie ordered silently, praying that somehow the

obstinate five-year-old would receive the message.

72. But Kirsti reached up and pushed the soldier’s

hand away. 73. “Don’t,” she said loudly.

74. Both soldiers began to laugh. 75. They spoke to each

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other in rapid German that Annemarie couldn’t un-

derstand.

76. “She is pretty, like my own little girl,” the tall one

said in a more pleasant voice.

77. Annemarie tried to smile politely.

78. “Go home, all of you. 79. Go study your schoolbooks.

80. And don’t run. 81. You look like hoodlums when you

run.”

82. The two soldiers turned away. 83. Quickly Annemarie

reached down again and grabbed her sister’s hand

before Kirsti could resist. 84. Hurrying the little girl

along, she rounded the corner. 85. In a moment Ellen

was beside her. 86. They walked quickly, not speaking,

with Kirsti between them, toward the large apart-

ment building where both families lived.

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