100 Books, #10: Number the Stars
Aug. 8th, 2012 12:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThere are a few books in the world that strike me as being simply perfect. I’ve already written about one, The Perilous Gard; and Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars is another.
I adore everything about this book. Even the cover is beautiful (at least on my book: they seem to have made it less stark in newer version, which I don’t approve).
And I love the heroine, of course: Annemarie Johansen, who seems like such an ordinary girl, but shows such reserves of bravery when the Nazis threaten her best friend. The strength of that friendship, which reflects the love that inspired the Danish Gentiles to spirit their Jewish neighbors to safety. (Almost all the Jews in Denmark were saved: an honor shared in occupied Europe only by Bulgaria.)
The way Lowry folds history into the narrative, so that Denmark’s principled resistance of German occupation feels real and vital. Sinking their own Navy so the Nazis couldn’t use it. The Danish Resistance, flitting through the margins of the story. Denmark’s King Christian X, riding his horse through Copenhagen, a silent reminder to his people to stay strong and unbroken by the occupation.
The king on his horse (for all that Annemarie comments he’s “not like fairy tale kings”) adds to the subtle fairy tale motif woven through the book. Annemarie’s little sister likes to hear fairy stories; Annemarie tells herself Little Red Riding Hood to keep her spirits up when she’s on an urgent mission - and runs into the Nazis right as she comes to the wolf.
This was the first really serious book I read on my own. It’s about bravery, and pride - not vainglorious pride, but basic human dignity - and having the strength and courage to keep that pride even when outside forces try to destroy it. The Danes have been conquered, the Jews are being hunted, and the Rosens have had to abandon everything to escape with their lives -
But their shoulders were as straight as they had been in the past: in the classroom, on the stage, at the Sabbath table. So there were other sources, too, of pride, and they had not left everything behind.
I adore everything about this book. Even the cover is beautiful (at least on my book: they seem to have made it less stark in newer version, which I don’t approve).
And I love the heroine, of course: Annemarie Johansen, who seems like such an ordinary girl, but shows such reserves of bravery when the Nazis threaten her best friend. The strength of that friendship, which reflects the love that inspired the Danish Gentiles to spirit their Jewish neighbors to safety. (Almost all the Jews in Denmark were saved: an honor shared in occupied Europe only by Bulgaria.)
The way Lowry folds history into the narrative, so that Denmark’s principled resistance of German occupation feels real and vital. Sinking their own Navy so the Nazis couldn’t use it. The Danish Resistance, flitting through the margins of the story. Denmark’s King Christian X, riding his horse through Copenhagen, a silent reminder to his people to stay strong and unbroken by the occupation.
The king on his horse (for all that Annemarie comments he’s “not like fairy tale kings”) adds to the subtle fairy tale motif woven through the book. Annemarie’s little sister likes to hear fairy stories; Annemarie tells herself Little Red Riding Hood to keep her spirits up when she’s on an urgent mission - and runs into the Nazis right as she comes to the wolf.
This was the first really serious book I read on my own. It’s about bravery, and pride - not vainglorious pride, but basic human dignity - and having the strength and courage to keep that pride even when outside forces try to destroy it. The Danes have been conquered, the Jews are being hunted, and the Rosens have had to abandon everything to escape with their lives -
But their shoulders were as straight as they had been in the past: in the classroom, on the stage, at the Sabbath table. So there were other sources, too, of pride, and they had not left everything behind.
