Number the Stars: Summary & Analysis

Lois Lowry Historical fiction Novel

Published 30 September 2026 · Updated 30 September 2026

Summary of Number the Stars

Number the Stars is a 1989 novel by Lois Lowry set in Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943, following ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen, whose family risks their lives to help hide and smuggle her best friend Ellen Rosen's Jewish family to safety in neutral Sweden. Based on the historical Danish resistance's real efforts to save nearly the entire Jewish population of Denmark from deportation, the novel follows Annemarie's growing courage as she takes on a dangerous role in the escape, culminating in a tense delivery of a crucial package to the fishing boat smuggling Ellen's family across the water.

Plot summary

Lowry tells the story from Annemarie's child's-eye perspective, gradually revealing the full danger of the resistance operation as Annemarie herself comes to understand what is truly at stake.

Beginning

Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen live ordinary lives in German-occupied Copenhagen, though the tension of occupation, including a frightening encounter with German soldiers, is a constant undercurrent. When word spreads that the Nazis plan to begin rounding up Denmark's Jewish population, the Johansens take Ellen into their home, passing her off as Annemarie's own sister to protect her from discovery.

Rising action

The Johansen family travels to Annemarie's uncle's coastal home, part of a coordinated effort to smuggle Ellen's family and other Jewish refugees across the water to neutral Sweden by fishing boat. Annemarie learns of a critical, dangerous errand: delivering a package concealing a handkerchief treated with a substance to fool the Nazis' tracking dogs, hidden inside a basket of food, to her uncle's boat before it can depart.

Ending

Annemarie completes her perilous journey through the woods alone, bluffing her way past German soldiers who question and search her basket, successfully delivering the crucial package that allows Ellen's family and others to escape safely to Sweden. The novel closes with the war's end and Denmark's liberation, and Annemarie, having grown through her experience into a more courageous and aware person, reflecting on the ordinary heroism of her family and community during the occupation.

Characters & setting

Lowry roots the fictional Johansen and Rosen families within the real historical context of the Danish resistance's successful, community-wide effort to save the country's Jewish population from Nazi deportation.

Annemarie Johansen

Annemarie's growth from a somewhat sheltered child into someone capable of genuine courage under extreme danger drives the novel's arc, culminating in her solitary, high-stakes journey to deliver the crucial package.

Ellen Rosen

Ellen's family's vulnerability as targets of Nazi persecution, and her quiet fear and gratitude while hidden within the Johansen household, humanizes the historical reality of the Holocaust's threat to ordinary families for the novel's young readers.

The Johansen family and the Danish resistance

Annemarie's parents and uncle model quiet, determined moral courage, participating in a broader, historically real network of ordinary Danish citizens who collectively risked their lives to protect their Jewish neighbors.

Themes, symbols & analysis

Lowry emphasizes throughout that the rescue of Denmark's Jewish population depended on the coordinated courage of many ordinary people rather than any single heroic figure.

Courage and moral responsibility

The novel presents courage not as fearlessness but as the willingness to act rightly despite genuine danger, embodied in Annemarie's growing bravery and her family's sustained risk-taking on behalf of their Jewish neighbors.

Friendship across danger

Annemarie and Ellen's friendship, tested and deepened by the extreme circumstances of Nazi occupation, illustrates how personal loyalty can motivate ordinary people toward extraordinary acts of resistance and protection.

Collective resistance and historical memory

By grounding the fictional story in the real history of Denmark's successful, community-wide rescue of its Jewish population, the novel emphasizes that resisting injustice often depends on the coordinated courage of many ordinary people rather than isolated heroism.