72 pages • 2 hours read
Lois LowryNumber the Stars
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1989A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Why Are You Running?”
Three young girls, Annemarie Johansen, Ellen Rosen, and Annemarie's younger sister Kirsti, are walking home from school in Copenhagen, Denmark. Annemarie challenges Ellen to a race, wanting to prepare for an upcoming school track meet, but Ellen doesn't want to. Nevertheless, Annemarie convinces her to run, with Kirsti trailing them. Annemarie is winning when a German soldier calls to them to stop. The Germans have been in Denmark for three years. He and another soldier, whom Annemarie recognizes and thinks of as the Giraffe because of his height and long neck, question the girls. They look through Annemarie's bag, asking her about school, her name, and the names of the other girls. Kirsti is rude to them (“Kirsti reached up and pushed the soldier's hand away,” Page 4). Nevertheless, charmed by Kirsti, the soldier tells her she reminds him of his daughter and they let the girls go home to study.
The girls go home slowly. Ellen, in particular, has been scared by the encounter. Ellen asks if Annemarie will tell her mother, but Annemarie says she won't; her mother would be upset and scold her. However, when Annemarie arrives at home, Kirsti is already telling her mother and Mrs. Rosen, who is visiting for a “coffee,” which is really a homemade herbal tea. Annemarie tries to explain, but the adults are uncomfortable. They discuss the Resistance, a group of people fighting against the Germans, and Annemarie thinks of Peter Neilson, who brings them illegal newspapers. Mrs. Rosen goes home to talk to Ellen, telling Annemarie to go a different way to school because the soldiers will remember their faces. Once she has gone, Kirsti wants cupcakes, but food shortages mean that there is no butter or sugar to make them, and there won't be more until the soldiers are gone.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Who Is the Man Who Rides Past?”
In bed that night, Kirsti wants Annemarie to tell her a fairy tale. Annemarie starts telling a story about a king, a queen, and their daughter. She thinks about King Christian X, the real king of Denmark, and how she and her older sister, Lise, who died, used to go wave at the king when he would go out riding. Annemarie remembers a story her father told her three years ago, when the Germans first came. A German soldier asked who the man riding past was, which the Danish found funny, because he was the king and very famous. When the German learned this, he asked where the king's bodyguard was, and a little boy replied that the bodyguard was all of Denmark. Mr. Johansen agreed with this. Annemarie wondered why the king didn't protect them against Nazis, and her father explained that their country was small and the king knew many people would die if they tried to fight. As an example, Norway fought against the Nazis but was defeated, as were many other places. However, one exception is Sweden.
Back in the present day, Annemarie thinks about how the king fell off of his horse, but is still living. Meanwhile, Lise had an accident two weeks before her planned wedding to Peter and died. However, the family never talks about this, though Annemarie still looks at Lise's trousseau when she's alone. Peter, Lise's finance, also still comes by to see the family, but he's not playful with the girls the way he used to be.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Where Is Mrs. Hirsch?”
Throughout September, the girls walk to school the long way to avoid seeing the German soldiers again. Their mothers still meet for “coffee,” using the little stove in the apartment for cooking and heat.
One morning, Mrs. Johansen notices that a button on Kirsti's coat is broken and tells the girls to go to Mrs. Hirsch's shop after school. However, when the girls arrive, they find the shop padlocked with a German sign on the door. Annemarie thinks about Mrs. Hirsch's son, Samuel, who is about her age. Kirsti thinks the Hirsches went on vacation, though Annemarie knows this isn't possible because of the war. Mrs. Johansen asks Annemarie about the sign; she knows it was German because of the swastika on it. Mrs. Johansen is worried and talks to Mrs. Rosen.
When the girls are in bed that night, Mrs. Johansen comes to get Annemarie. Peter has come to visit, and Mr. and Mrs. Johansen want them to talk altogether, even though it is after curfew and Peter shouldn't be there. Peter has brought seashells for Annemarie and Kirsti and beer for her parents. Annemarie tells Peter that she won her race. The group discusses how the Germans have closed many shops owned by Jews. Annemarie doesn't understand why, and her father explains that the Nazis are tormenting the Jews. This worries Annemarie, who wonders who will take care of them. Her mother tells her that friends will. This makes Annemarie think of the Rosens, who are Jewish. She remembers that Mr. Rosen is a teacher and they can't close the schools. Peter tells her to keep an eye on Ellen and stay away from the soldiers. Annemarie reminds her father of the story about the king and says that they will have to be bodyguards for the Jews as well. Back in bed, Annemarie wonders if she would die to protect the Rosens and other Jews in Denmark. She's unsure but reassures herself that this is an imaginary scenario and she won't have to die for them. She is not a soldier or a member of the Resistance, just an ordinary person.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The inciting incident of the novel, in which Annemarie, Ellen, and Kirsti encounter two Nazi officers, establishes not only the novel's setting, but also its key characters and theme. Taking place during World War II, Number the Stars is set in Denmark, which was occupied by the Germans during the war and found itself subject to Nazi rule. Annemarie's encounter with her father in this section clarifies and elaborates upon this occupation, providing backstory: the government accepted the Nazi occupation in order to protect its citizens. However, the girls' encounter with the soldiers and the closing of Jewish businesses sets an ominous tone. The privations of the war also appear in other ways in these chapters, including the revelation that cupcakes and coffee have not been available since the war due to shortages. These small details combined with the girls' encounter with the soldiers show how life has changed since the war began, and particularly since the German occupation.
The early chapters of the novel also introduce its main characters. Here, Annemarie is described as “lanky” (Page 1) and blonde, while Ellen is described as “stocky” (Page 1) and dark. Similarly, Annemarie is a fast runner, which will be important in the novel's climax. Meanwhile, Kirsti, as a younger girl, asks questions and represents an innocence to dangerous situations, such as the encounter with the soldiers, giving readers a way to understand the setting more easily.
By using plot points that center around danger to Jewish families, notably the Rosens, Lowry shows the insidious way the Nazi party overtook daily life for all the residents of Copenhagen. For example, when the shops begin to close, Annemarie consoles herself that Mr. Rosen can't lose his job because the schools will always need teachers. However, this shows her innocence because the Rosens, who are Jewish, are in danger of being captured by the Nazis. Similarly, Kirsti confronts the Nazi soldiers with total innocence and even disdain, while the older girls are wary, and the parents are very troubled by the encounter, telling the girls to go a different way to and from school. This encounter, and the adults' reaction to it, foreshadows the greater evils the book later explores, emphasizing the safety and dangers of ignorance. Kirsti is less knowledgeable about the current situations than the older characters, which gives her a certain level of safety, but she also risks upsetting the German soldiers more because of this innocence.
Through this depiction of increasing danger, these chapters also set the stage for later exploration of complex themes. Annemarie tells Kirsti fairy tales as they fall asleep, though the parallels and differences between these stories and real life begins to emerge in this section. For example, the King of Denmark, Christian X, chose to surrender to the Germans instead of fight—a practical move that nevertheless had severe consequences. Kirsti's innocence mirrors the innocence of the country and its political leaders more largely and is illustrated throughout these chapters as she fails to recognize the dangerous situations around her.
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