Raising Readers - Number the Stars

Parents who encourage and successfully develop children who read see greater school success and satisfaction.  This series reviews various examples of children’s literature and provides insights for parents to discuss with their children.   Reading and sharing the wonderful stories available to children sends a message that reading is important, creates positive “shared experiences” for families, and helps parents exert a subtle influence on their children’s development.

Ten year old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen live in occupied Denmark during World War II.  They have grown somewhat used to the German soldiers that seem to be at every street corner and have learned to avert their gaze and never speak during any encounter.  Some of the soldiers try to be nice but some are rude and threatening.  The story opens with Annemarie, Ellen and Annemarie’s younger sister encountering a couple of soldiers who act in a menacing way.  The sinister mood set by this encounter carries on and intensifies as the story progresses.  There is talk that the Germans will soon collect all of the Danish Jews and send them away.  At first, innocent Annemarie is only puzzled by the talk since it doesn’t apply to her.  Then she grows concerned as she observes that her parents, and Ellen and her parents are very upset since the Rosens are Jewish.  The adults know more than they are saying which increases her unease.

When they learn that the round up is imminent, the Johansen’s join with other Danes to hide their Jewish friends and help them escape across the sea to neighboring Sweden.  What commences is a very exciting and tense adventure for young Annemarie as she ends up helping her mother and father in their efforts to save their friends.

The character development offers a nice insight into a young child’s perception of events that are sensed but not fully understood.  Annemarie comes to know that something is very wrong – more wrong than the daily shortages of food and material for clothes - but doesn’t have a full grasp of the depth of the problem.  In fact, the story manages to create the sense of foreboding without actually going into the horrors of the Holocaust.  Older children may know the historic background, but younger children can also grasp the tense conflict and get drawn into the adventure without fully understanding what was really at stake.

Depending on reading level, this story is for readers 9 years old and up.      

Raising Readers is written by Steve Arnold of Club Z! In-Home Tutoring Services.  He can be reached at 610.831.5101 or ChesMontClubZ@gmail.com.  Find out more about Club Z! In-Home Tutoring at www.clubztutoring.com/ChesMont.