Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $3.95 shipping
96% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
93% positive over last 12 months
+ $3.99 shipping
90% positive over last 12 months

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


Number the Stars Paperback – May 2, 2011
Lois Lowry (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Price | New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry" | $20.95 | $1.15 |
Audio CD, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $15.54 | $6.03 |
Multimedia CD
"Please retry" |
—
| $76.99 | $74.99 |
- Kindle
$0.00 Give this and thousands of kid-friendly books with Amazon Kids+ -
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial - Hardcover
$17.99 - Paperback
$7.99 - Mass Market Paperback
$7.03 - Audio CD
$23.94 - Multimedia CD
from $74.99
-
50% off gift wrap service: code GIFTWRAP50.
Get 50% off gift wrap service with code GIFTWRAP50. Offered by Amazon.com. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Enhance your purchase
The unforgettable Newbery Medal–winning novel from Lois Lowry. As the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen’s family takes in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.
A modern classic of historical fiction, Number the Stars has won generations of fans.
"Readers are taken to the very heart of Annemarie's experience, and, through her eyes, come to understand the true meaning of bravery." (School Library Journal)
- Print length160 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level5 - 7
- Lexile measure670L
- Dimensions5.13 x 0.4 x 7.63 inches
- PublisherClarion Books
- Publication dateMay 2, 2011
- ISBN-100547577095
- ISBN-13978-0547577098
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Special offers and product promotions
- Get 50% off gift wrap service with code GIFTWRAP50. Offered by Amazon.com. Here's how (restrictions apply)
- There had been no real coffee in Copenhagen since the beginning of the Nazi occupation. Not even any real tea.Highlighted by 2,456 Kindle readers
- Lise was a grownup girl of eighteen, then, about to be married to Peter Neilsen.Highlighted by 1,758 Kindle readers
- There was no one in the casket at all. Instead, it seemed to be stuffed with folded blankets and articles of clothing.Highlighted by 1,726 Kindle readers
From the Publisher
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Giver | Gathering Blue | Messenger | Son | Number the Stars | |
Discover More Books by Lois Lowry | Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind his fragile community. | Left orphaned and physically flawed, young Kira faces a frightening, uncertain future. She struggles with ever broadening responsibilities in her quest for truth, discovering things that will change her life forever. | Once a utopian community that prided itself on welcoming strangers, Village will soon be cut off to all outsiders. Matty must deliver the message of Village’s closing and try to convince Seer’s daughter Kira to return with him before it’s too late. | Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice. In this thrilling series finale, Son thrusts readers once again into the chilling world of The Giver. | Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anastasia Krupnik | Anastasia Again | Anastasia at Your Service | Anastasia Off Her Rocker | Anastasia on Her Own | |
Anastasia's tenth year has some good things, like falling in love and really getting to know her grandmother, and some bad things, like finding out about an impending baby brother. | Twelve-year-old Anastasia is horrified at her family's decision to move from their city apartment to a house in the suburbs. | Twelve-year-old Anastasia has a series of disastrous experiences when, expecting to get a job as a lady's companion, she is hired to be a maid. | Anastasia's seventh-grade science project becomes almost more than she can handle, but brother Sam, age three, and a bust of Freud nobly aid her. | Her family's new, organized schedule for easy housekeeping makes Anastasia confident that she can run the household while her mother is out of town, until she hits unexpected complications. |
![]() |
![]() |
|
---|---|---|
The Willoughbys | On the Horizon | |
A delightfully tongue-in-cheek story about parents trying to get rid of their four children and the children who are all too happy to lose their beastly parents and be on their own. | A moving account of the lives lost in two of WWII’s most infamous events: Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. |
Editorial Reviews
Review
"The whole work is seamless, compelling, and memorable—impossible to put down; difficult to forget." — The Horn Book
"Like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as a courier on the night of the escape." — Kirkus Reviews
"Readers are taken to the very heart of Annemarie's experience, and, through her eyes, come to understand the true meaning of bravery." — School Library Journal
About the Author
Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver. Her first novel, A Summer to Die, was awarded the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award. Ms. Lowry lives in Maine.
www.loislowry.com
Twitter @LoisLowryWriter
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product details
- Publisher : Clarion Books; Reissue edition (May 2, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 160 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0547577095
- ISBN-13 : 978-0547577098
- Reading age : 10 - 12 years
- Lexile measure : 670L
- Grade level : 5 - 7
- Item Weight : 4.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.13 x 0.4 x 7.63 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Lois Lowry is known for her versatility and invention as a writer. She was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After studying at Brown University, she married, started a family, and turned her attention to writing. She is the author of more than forty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader's Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award. Several books have been adapted to film and stage, and THE GIVER has become an opera. Her newest book, ON THE HORIZON, is a collection of memories and images from Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, and post-war Japan. A mother and grandmother, Ms. Lowry divides her time between Maine and Florida. To learn more about Lois Lowry, see her website at www.loislowry.com
author interview
A CONVERSATION WITH LOIS LOWRY ABOUT THE GIVER
Q. When did you know you wanted to become a writer?
A. I cannot remember ever not wanting to be a writer.
Q. What inspired you to write The Giver?
A. Kids always ask what inspired me to write a particular book or how did I get an idea for a particular book, and often it’s very easy to answer that because books like the Anastasia books come from a specific thing; some little event triggers an idea. And some, like Number the Stars, rely on real history. But a book like The Giver is a much more complicated book, and therefore it comes from much more complicated places—and many of them are probably things that I don’t even recognize myself anymore, if I ever did. So it’s not an easy question to answer.
I will say that the whole concept of memory is one that interests me a great deal. I’m not sure why that is, but I’ve always been fascinated by the thought of what memory is and what it does and how it works and what we learn from it. And so I think probably that interest of my own and that particular subject was the origin, one of many, of The Giver.
Q. How did you decide what Jonas should take on his journey?
A. Why does Jonas take what he does on his journey? He doesn’t have much time when he sets out. He originally plans to make the trip farther along in time, and he plans to prepare for it better. But then, because of circumstances, he has to set out in a very hasty fashion. So what he chooses is out of necessity. He takes food because he needs to survive. He takes the bicycle because he needs to hurry and the bike is faster than legs. And he takes the baby because he is going out to create a future. Babies—and children—always represent the future. Jonas takes the baby, Gabriel, because he loves him and wants to save him, but he takes the baby also in order to begin again with a new life.
Q. When you wrote the ending, were you afraid some readers would want more details or did you want to leave the ending open to individual interpretation?
A. Many kids want a more specific ending to The Giver. Some write, or ask me when they see me, to spell it out exactly. And I don’t do that. And the reason is because The Giver is many things to many different people. People bring to it their own complicated beliefs and hopes and dreams and fears and all of that. So I don’t want to put my own feelings into it, my own beliefs, and ruin that for people who create their own endings in their minds.
Q. Is it an optimistic ending? Does Jonas survive?
A. I will say that I find it an optimistic ending. How could it not be an optimistic ending, a happy ending, when that house is there with its lights on and music is playing? So I’m always kind of surprised and disappointed when some people tell me that they think the boy and the baby just die. I don’t think they die. What form their new life takes is something I like people to figure out for themselves. And each person will give it a different ending. I think they’re out there somewhere and I think that their life has changed and their life is happy, and I would like to think that’s true for the people they left behind as well.
Q. In what way is your book Gathering Blue a companion to The Giver?
A. Gathering Blue postulates a world of the future, as The Giver does. I simply created a different kind of world, one that had regressed instead of leaping forward technologically as the world of The Giver has. It was fascinating to explore the savagery of such a world. I began to feel that maybe it coexisted with Jonas’s world . . . and that therefore Jonas could be a part of it in a tangential way. So there is a reference to a boy with light eyes at the end of Gathering Blue. Originally I thought he could be either Jonas or not, as the reader chose. But since then I have published two more books—Messenger, and Son—which complete The Giver Quartet and make clear that the light-eyed boy is, indeed. Jonas. In the book Son readers will find out what became of all their favorite characters: Jonas, Gabe, and Kira as well, from Gathering Blue. And there are some new characters—most especially Claire, who is fourteen at the beginning of Son— whom I hope they will grow to love.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2019
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
If you've read the Diary of Anne Frank, this is very different. There are some parts that may seem a little scary for younger children but by far, this is the best I've read for young ones. There are no graphic details of the trauma and abuse. While some things are mentioned in a way you get the idea that something bad has happened, its done in a way that is gentle for readers.
The book discloses a lot of interesting facts about life in Coppenhagen during WWII including the food and other shortages. I learned an awful lot about the war in this small European country through reading this book such as:
In 1943, the Danish resistance movement rescued all but 500 of its Jewish population of 7 000 to 8 000 from being sent to Nazi concentration camps by transporting them to neutral Sweden where they were offered asylum.
Denmark surrendered to the German invaders in 1940 as the King, Christian X, did not want to subject his people to a slaughter. He knew his army was no match for the Germans.
In August 1943, the Danes sank their entire navy in Copenhagen harbour as the German’s approached to take the ships over for their own use.
There are some other fascinating historical facts included in this book that I won’t reveal as they would be spoilers.
When the Jews are warned by their Rabbi at the Jewish New Year Celebration that the Nazi’s were going to start rounding them up for deportation that night, Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen are thrown into turmoil as both families act together to save the Rosen’s from deportation and smuggle them to Sweden.
This book is for children aged 8 to 12 years old and is a wonderful way to introduce this age group to the horrors of war in an appropriate way. The book is not at all graphic but it does convey the fear and tragedy that is war.
This book won the Newbery Award.
I loved the fact that the Danes loved their KIng Christian X so much. When asked how he could feel safe going out and riding his horse among them everyday, the answer was that all of Denmark was his bodyguard.
My Grandmother's name was Ingeborg, too, as was the mother's in this story! It may be a children's book, but it is just as good for adults.

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2019


Top reviews from other countries

Well I read this in one hit and I was charmed by it. Having studied the war and the Holocaust for probably nigh on 40 years now, I was aware of Denmark's careful handling of its Jews and I have to say they deserve great credit for their endeavour to prevent meekly handing over people of their own, who just happened to be Jewish.
The depictions of the Nazi soldiers chimed perfectly with elderly Dutch people I know who were children at that time - I wish I knew why occupying soldiers felt the need to always be so nasty - but the firm need not to ask questions, because if you happen to be being bullied then ignorance is bliss, was an extremely mindful piece of advice.
Thank you, Wendy Lower, for a beautiful book, a book of kindness and great honesty at a time when friends were a much needed and very blessed commodity.


It was recommended to me as an example of an excellent writing style.


Easy to read for adults and children alike.
Would certainly recommend this book.