Number the Stars

Lowry, Lois. (1977). Number the Stars. Illus. Karen Sigler. New York, NY: Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.

Brief Annotation: This is a story about a 10 year old girl named Annemarie Johansen during World War II. The story takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark involving the Danish Jews. Annemarie’s family takes a huge risk as they protect Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen. Annemarie also finds herself on a journey to help her best friend. Number the Stars is a story full of the cruelty of World War II and the hard times of the past. It also teaches the strength, love, and support that many families held onto in order to get through those difficult years.

Genre: Historical fiction novel

Grade Level: 4 -6

Readers who will like this: Readers interested in WWII, readers who have best friends,

Response/Rating (1-4): 4 – Another wonderful book for a unit.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: What do you know about World War II?

Reading Strategies Connection: A good instructional strategy that would be beneficial in this story is “Word Walls” (Tompkins, p. 139). “Word Walls” are collections of words posted in the classroom that students use for word-study activities and refer to when they’re reading and write (Wagstaff, 1999). “Word Walls” develop vocabulary, fluency, and content areas for all grade levels. “Word Walls” work well with a thematic unit. I think Number the Stars would fit in with a World War II theme very nicely and a lot of vocabulary would need to be addressed to build students’ background knowledge and increase their comprehension of the story. It is a simple strategy that can be used at any time as well, the teacher prepares a blank word wall in the classroom from sheets of construction paper, and labels each block with the letters of the alphabet. The teacher will introduce the word wall and write several key vocabulary words found in the book before the class begins to read. Students and teachers can add to the word wall as they come to new vocabulary terms in the story. The students can then refer to the word wall at any time and reference it for writing.