Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - Review

Book Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

4/5 stars. This was a super short read for me. It was also a middle-grade/children’s book, so it was easy to consume. It was a sweet story that still had a lot of action and kept my attention.

I finished this book in only two days. After seeing how short it was, I knew it wouldn't take me long, but also the momentum of the book kept me reading. There weren't any boring or slow parts that made me want to stop reading. Even though not every chapter was about some exciting action happening, it all still kept the story moving.

The characters were very simple - a common thing with books geared toward children - but they were very likeable. Annemarie was such a good friend to Ellen. It was really interesting to see the holocaust from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl. She doesn't fully understand the gravity of everything that happens, but she's still willing to do the right thing. I also felt the same nerves that she did whenever her little sister started to speak, worrying that she would say something that would endanger them.

The few moments of action were still pretty tense situations, despite them not being as dramatic as some other books about WWII and the Holocaust. Annemarie is just a normal girl. She's not a solider on the front lines, she's not a Jew in a camp - she's a young girl who tries to be brave.

Content warning:

There's no language, and there's no romance. For it being a book about the Holocaust, the violence is very minimal. It's barely present at all. A soldier slaps Annemarie's mom at one point, and you hear about people dying at the hands of Nazis, but nothing is detailed.