Number the Stars was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1989, winning the Newbery Medal in 1990. Based on the historical fact that the Danish resistance successfully evacuated nearly the entire Jewish population of Denmark (approximately 7,000 people) to neutral Sweden in October 1943, the novel tells this story through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen, whose family shelters her Jewish best friend Ellen Rosen.
Lowry’s achievement is telling a Holocaust story at precisely the right level for its intended audience (ages 9–12): Annemarie understands enough to be frightened but not enough to be destroyed. She knows the soldiers are dangerous; she does not know the full extent of what they represent. She knows her friend is in danger; she does not understand the systematic machinery of genocide. This partial knowledge creates tension without trauma, and it is historically accurate — children in occupied countries experienced the occupation exactly this way, understanding the fear without comprehending its full dimensions.
The novel’s title comes from Psalm 147 (“He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name”) and serves as the resistance’s code: the Jews of Denmark are not numbers in a Nazi inventory but individuals, each known by name, each worthy of rescue. The Danish resistance’s achievement — saving over 99% of Denmark’s Jews — remains one of the few unambiguously heroic national stories of the Holocaust.
Collecting Number the Stars
First edition (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1989): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $50–$150
- Signed first edition: $100–$300
- Without jacket: $10–$25