Number the Stars
Lois Lowry, 1989
Historical fiction Young adultContemporary fictionLiterary fiction
A Danish girl learns what courage looks like when her best friend's life depends on ordinary people doing small, dangerous things. The prose stays plain and steady while dread gathers around small everyday choices, with friendship and quiet hope pushing back.
Feels like dread and hope. About war, friendship and morality.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you want a short historical novel about ordinary courage seen through a child's clear, unshowy view. The wartime setting includes armed soldiers and real fear, so it may be too tense for very young or sensitive readers.
Why read it
It offers a compact, clear-eyed look at how small acts of decency matter under pressure, and why that lesson still travels.
A page from the book
What it means when a five-year-old stops seeing the soldiers at all.
As they turned to enter their building, both girls looked straight ahead, toward the door. They did it purposely so that they would not catch the eyes or the attention of two more soldiers, who stood with their guns on this corner as well. Kirsti scurried ahead of them through the door, chattering about the picture she was bringing home from kindergarten to show Mama. For Kirsti, the soldiers were simply part of the landscape, something that had always been there, on every corner, as unimportant as lampposts, throughout her remembered life. Lois Lowry.Number the Stars won the 1990 Newbery Medal; Lowry has said the story began with her friend Annelise's memories of occupied Copenhagen.
Books that feel like this
More by Lois Lowry
The Giver
Lois Lowry, 1993
A boy in a perfectly ordered community is chosen to hold its memories—and discovers what that order costs.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Number the Stars for me?
- You may like it if you want a short historical novel about ordinary courage seen through a child's clear, unshowy view. The wartime setting includes armed soldiers and real fear, so it may be too tense for very young or sensitive readers.
- What is Number the Stars like?
- The prose stays plain and steady while dread gathers around small everyday choices, with friendship and quiet hope pushing back. Feels like dread and hope. About war, friendship and morality.
- What should I read after Number the Stars?
- If you liked Number the Stars, try Between Shades of Gray (Ruta Sepetys), Lilac Girls (Martha Hall Kelly) and The Two Towers (J.R.R. Tolkien).
A taste of the feed
The morning a boy's life is priced, and the price fits in a pocket.
Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother’s was worth a pocket watch.
Between Shades of Gray · Ruta Sepetys
The consolation a parent leaves behind: a flower that needs winter to bloom.
Caroline wiped her cheek with the back of her gardening glove, leaving a dark smudge below one eye, then pulled off her gloves. ‘But it’s fitting in a way - Father loved the fact that a lilac only blossoms after a harsh winter.’ Caroline reached over and smoothed the hair back from my brow with a light touch. How many times had my mother done that? ‘It’s a miracle all of this beauty emerges after such hardship, don’t you think?
Lilac Girls · Martha Hall Kelly
What it takes to imagine an enemy's life instead of his death.
It was Sam’s first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man’s name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace.
The Two Towers · J.R.R. Tolkien
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