Meredith McGovern
INFO 683
March 15, 2008
Reflection Paper
Number the Stars, Then and Now
What you read, view, hear, and generally take in as a child help create the person that you become later on in life. Watching your favorite childhood television show brings back wonderful memories, just as reading your favorite childhood book brings back all the feelings of the first time you read it. The power of the written word makes a huge difference to young readers. So much can be discovered and enjoyed in a book. Although I was a fervent reader from an early age, it was not until third grade that I discovered the first book to make a major impression on me. That book was Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars.
Number the Stars tells the story of two best friends, Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen, living in Copenhagen in 1943 as the Nazi regime takes over their country. The girls do not realize the impact of the Nazis until a local shop is mysteriously closed down and its Jewish owners “relocated” to an undisclosed location. Ellen herself is Jewish and soon becomes part of the Johansen family, masquerading as Lise, Annemarie’s deceased older sister (later revealed to have been killed for being part of the Resistance). Soon after, however, the Johansens helps the Rosen family escape to Sweden, fleeing the Nazi persecution they were eventually to face. After the war, Annemarie finds Ellen’s Star of David necklace, which she then wears in the hopes of giving it back to her best friend someday.
I first discovered Number the Stars through a sample textbook that my choir teacher gave to me as a gift, since I was always reading a book. It featured a chapter from the novel. The excerpt mentioned that the novel had won the Newbery Medal and I was striving to read all the winners that I could get my hands on. I read the chapter multiple times and then quickly found the book at the library, read it, and loved it. Along with reading, I loved history when I was younger, especially World War II and the Holocaust. I attribute my love of reading and history to why Number the Stars meant so much to me. I admired the strength of the characters, especially Annemarie, who voluntarily goes with her mother to help the Rosens escape. She was a young girl, just like me, who risked everything in order to help her best friend see not only a better life, but her own future.
Placing Number the Stars in a specific genre it is simple; it is a perfect example of historical fiction. It not only tells the characters’ stories but also, the story of a specific event in history. Lowry even includes an afterword, where she explains her inspiration for the story and the historical basis for events and characters. The reader is reminded that while the specifics may be fiction, the larger picture certainly is not. For me personally, even though I already had an interest in the Holocaust, Number the Stars helped it grow and I began reading more accounts of the period, both true life and fictional. I have since outgrown that area of interest but rereading Lowry’s book brought me back to that place of curiosity and heartache I felt when first reading it. I again wanted to reread books like The Diary of Anne Frank and Night, as well as The Upstairs Room and Jacob’s Rescue.
While Number the Stars is historical fiction at its very best, it is also a story of friendship. There is certainly no shortage of children’s novels that tell a story of friendship between two girls but Number the Stars is friendship in the context of one of the horrific tragedies in humankind. That is another reason why the book made such an impact on me and why I believe it still makes an impact on children today. Not only do they read about life in under the Nazi occupation but a story of two best friends and what friends do for friends. An example from the book that stands out for me is after the Rosens fled Denmark, Annemarie wonders aloud whether she will ever see Ellen again, to which her uncle says “You will, little one. You saved her life, after all” (Lowry, 1989, p. 127).
Rereading Number the Stars again as a 22 year old was a nostalgic experience. I still have my original copy of the book, which I have since lent out to family friends’ children for summer reading and such. I haven’t looked at the book in years though. Upon opening it to the title page, amusingly enough, I saw that I drew my own version of Ellen’s Star of David necklace on that front page, mirroring the version printed on the cover. I did enjoy reading the book again; it had been so long that I felt like I was reading a whole new book! Unfortunately, that almost ruined the experience for me. As an adult, I was not as engrossed in the story as I was as a child and did not want to pick it up to start reading it all over again. When comparing my impression of Number the Stars today to my childhood impression, I see that the two are no longer the same. I still believe it is an amazing work of historical fiction for children but it was not as emotionally invested as I once was.
Perhaps one of the reasons my reaction has changed so much is because of the book’s ending. It is open ended and we never find out if the Rosens successfully escaped Denmark to make it to Swedenor if Annemarie ever sees Ellen again. Reading that as a child, it was a hopeful ending. Everyone worked so hard to make sure all their Jewish friends had gotten to safety, so of course they made it to Sweden. In my mind, Annemarie and Ellen saw each other again and Ellen’s prized necklace was again around her neck. Now, when I read the ending, I instantly was hit with sadness. Knowing what I know now, I am not positive that the Rosens successfully made it to Sweden. The first thought in my head was “What if Annemarie never saw Ellen again? Did she wear that necklace for the rest of her life? What happened to Ellen and her family?” I was not as satisfied with Lowry’s inconclusive ending as I was once.
As a child, I understood the Holocaust and I still continue to understand it today. The difference is, I wasmore innocent about history and I believed that the good would triumph over the evil, meaning all the Jews who had escaped survived. Today, I can only hope that these two best friends were reunited, even if it was years after their childhood days together. I wonder how children in today’s world interpret the ending of Number the Stars. Is it positive or negative? Lowry obviously made it open for interpretation so every individual’s thoughts could be a possibility, something I once found exciting. Now I just wanted an answer because I did not want to fear that the worst had happened to Ellen.
What impression would Number the Stars make on children today? I hope that the impact of Annemarie’s story is still the same, even 19 years after its publication. Despite my thoughts on the book’s ending, I still believe it is an example of how compelling and fulfilling children’s literature can be. Lowry took a subject and a time period that we all know about it and made it accessible to children. The characters are real and relatable, even though their particular situation is worlds away from its readers. There is a reason Number the Stars won the Newbery Medal and was also a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, and American Library Association Notable Book. It encourages children to think, gives them a history lesson, and teaches them a world that no one should ever have to live in ever again. Even though my impression of the book has changed just as I have grown and matured, Number the Stars is still one of the most important books in my life.
Works Cited
Lowry, Lois. (1989) Number the Stars. New York, NY: Dell Publishing.
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