#50 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (1989)
42 points
Previously #56, Lowry’s classic stays at pretty much the same spot on both the old and the new list. And why not? A beautiful book that deserves to be remembered.
The plot from the publisher reads, “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.”
In terms of the research for this novel, Ms. Lowry talks a bit about it on the Scholastic site: “I did a lot of research in libraries, about the history of WW II and Denmark’s role in it. But the most important thing I did was to go to Denmark and to talk to people who had actually participated in the rescue of the Jews. It was important, too, to walk around Copenhagen and feel what the city is like (and imagine what it had been like then) and to go up the coast, through the farmland and the fishing villages.”
There is a serious debate out there about if and when to teach children about the Holocaust. “Representations of the Holocaust in Children’s Literature” from the Children’s Literature Review puts it this way. “Holocaust children’s literature has always been controversial. Though some feel that the subject matter is inappropriate for young audiences, others argue that children must be educated about such a significant historical event.” So periodically we will see children’s books try to tackle this slippery subject. Some fail, others succeed, and one of the most successful was probably Number the Stars.
Good old symbolism. This book is chock full of it, but not so much that it annoys the reader (whether an adult or a child). In the April 1997 edition of Lion and the Unicorn, David L. Russell takes a close look at some of that. “The symbolism of the boots trampling on this human dignity is found in many, if not in most, stories of the Holocaust. In fact, Lowry’s editor felt that there were too many references to the boots and that some should be eliminated, but Lowry rejected the advice, noting that ‘those high shiny boots had trampled on several million childhoods and I was sorry I hadn’t had several million more pages on which to mention that’.” And that’s not even getting into the Little Red Riding Hood comparisons Brenda Ferber brought up. It’s one of those elements that you don’t notice at first, but if you look for it . . . oh, it’s there.
In terms of the cover, Ms. Lowry says, “The girl on the jacket of Number the Stars is a Swedish girl named Anna Caterina Johnson. (She prefers being called Ann.) I photographed her when she was 10… She is now married with three children!”
I won a Newbery Award Medal proper in 1990, beating out such titles as Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle, Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples, and The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen.
I’ve seen fan art by professional illustrators on a lot of books, but this image by Ashley Smith surprised me. I wo
Hey, thanks for the mention, Betsy! When I first saw the Boing Boing review I dashed upstairs from the basement, laptop in my trembling hands, before I could even read it, to show it to my wife so we could read it together. It was, dare I say, like that classic scene in “That Thing You Do!” when everyone in the band is ecstatically running around town while their song is actually playing on the radio . . .
And now that I’ve revealed myself to be a complete dork, I will quietly withdraw.
That Number the Stars news is very interesting and exciting. Sounds like Sean Astin is very committed to the story.
Interesting about a possible Number the Stars movie – that is such a perfectly crafted book, wonder what the movie will be like.
And thanks so much for the shoutout for our Elevensies book giveaway.
Thanks for the mention, but I believe the correct order is Mac Barnett/Eli Horowitz/Scott Teplin/Adam Rex. If I had drawn all those complicated interiors I’d want top billing over the guy who just did a bunch of little portraits, though Scott’s a peach and would probably never mention it.
I LOVE Turkish Delight! The first sample I ever tasted was chocolate-covered rose-flavored Turkish Delight, and I could easily be captured by the White Witch with it as bait! I have since had non-chocolate-covered and different flavors and still love it. My husband would buy packages any time he had a trip to England, which was quite frequently back in those days. When we saw the first Narnia movie, we smuggled some Turkish Delight into the theater!
James Kennedy, you made me really bizarrely happy with that comment. Just so you know.
I have always thought that Turkish Delight was the same as Turkish taffy (which I love), just that the first was the British name and the second, American.