NUMBER THE STARS

FULL TITLE Number the Stars

AUTHOR Lois Lowry
TYPE OF WORK Young adult novel
GENRE Historical fiction; war novel; coming-of-age novel
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN 1989, U.S.
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1989
PUBLISHER Houghton Mifflin Company
NARRATOR Third person omniscient
POINT OF VIEW The story is told from Annemarie Johansen's point of view
TONE Introspective; serious; matter-of-fact
TENSE Immediate past tense
SETTING (TIME) World War II, from September 1943 to May 1945
SETTING (PLACE) Copenhagen, Denmark, and Gilleleje, Denmark
PROTAGONIST Annemarie Johansen
CLIMAX Ellen and the others escape as Annemarie races against time and bad
odds to her uncle's boat to deliver the crucial important packet
FALLING ACTION Uncle Henrik delivers his passengers to Sweden safely; Mrs.
Johansen and her daughters return home; the war ends; Annemarie anticipates
Ellen's return
THEMES The difficulty of growing up; voyage and transformation; fairy tales
MOTIFS Truth-seeking versus self protection; the deceit of appearances; acting
in wartime
SYMBOLS The seashell, the Star of David, the woods
FORESHADOWING Often, whatever Annemarie hopes will not happen is what
occurs. Little Red Riding-Hood foreshadows Annemarie's own trip through the
forest