Author: Lois Lowry
Illustrator: N/A
© Date: 1989, 2011 Introduction
Publisher: Sandpiper
Pages: 137
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: None
Publisher Recommended Age: 10-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: It is 1943, and for Annemarie Johansen, life in Copenhagen is a complicated mix of ordinary home and school time, food shortages, and the constant presence of Nazi soldiers. Bravery seems a vague virtue—one possessed by dragon-slaying knights in the bedtime stories she tells her younger sister, Kirsti. As the German troops begin their campaign to “relocate” all the Jews of Denmark, the Johansens take in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is part of the family. The girls live like sisters, until it becomes clear something more needs to be done to save Ellen, her family, and the Jews of Denmark.
In this tale of an entire nation’s heroism, the story of the Danish Resistance and their plan to smuggle the entire Jewish population of Denmark—nearly seven thousand people—across the sea to Sweden is told with pride and hope through one young girl’s eyes.
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts:
Was this book well written? Yes
Was this book thought provoking/informational? Yes
Was I happy to be done reading it and ready for something else? Yes
If my ratings are based on how I feel about the books, then rating this one higher doesn’t seem appropriate. I appreciate how the book was written and how inspirational it could be. But I don’t usually read books like this one, so at this point in my life, I was not in love with it.
Page Pup gives this one thumb down, but Page Pup doesn’t usually enjoy this type of book either.
Use caution with younger or sensitive readers, confrontations with soldiers, courage and strength in trying times, and death of a character can be heavy.
Family Unit:
- Annemarie lives with her mother, father, and younger sister Kirsti. Her older sister, Lise, died years before.
- Ellen lives with her mother and father.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- German soldiers are looking for Jews and pestering other Danish citizens.
- Annemarie needs to find ways to stand up to soldiers without making soldiers aware that she is not entirely following the rules.
- Annemarie, her family, Ellen, and her parents work together to find ways to make the most of food and clothing scarcities.
Positive Items:
- Courage and bravery of Annemarie, her family, the Jews, and Danes is highlighted.
- Annemarie and her family are able to find their courage and bravery to help their friends.
- Ellen and her family are able to find their courage and bravery to do what is needed to survive.
- Danish citizens are able to use their intelligence and creativity to do what they know is right.
- Annemarie and Ellen learn about each other’s religious traditions and respect one another.
Items of Interest:
- Annemarie, Ellen, and Kirsti are running down the sidewalk after school. Soldiers stop them and ask questions. One strokes Kirsti’s hair and says that she reminds him of his own daughter.
- Food, clothing, and other items are scarce during war time.
- Jewish owned stores were closed by the Nazis.
- Annemarie’s parents take in Ellen and hide her. Ellen does not know where her parents go to stay safe. Soldiers come to the house asking questions about where the Rosen family went.
- Annemarie’s mother takes Annemarie, Kirsti, and Ellen to the coast to visit her brother. Annemarie’s father is disappointed that he cannot watch over them, but knows that he needs to keep going to work.
- Annemarie’s mother gives her brother a bad time about not having a woman in his life to take care of his home.
- Danish fisherman were hiding Jewish citizens in their boats and taking them across the water to Sweden.
- Ellen is reunited with her parents.
- A funeral is staged to cover for people meeting in a home after dark. Soldiers come and ask questions.
- Annemarie’s mother walks some of the people down to the fishing boats in the middle of the night. Annemarie stays up waiting for her mother and starts to get anxious when her mother has not come home in the early morning. Annemarie sees her mother in the distance dragging herself back to the house. Her mother tripped in the dark and broke her ankle.
- Ellen’s father was responsible for taking an important envelope to the boat. In the dark, he tripped over the front step and unknowingly dropped it.
- Annemarie takes the handkerchief from the envelope in a basket down to the boat. She is confronted by soldiers, but manages to keep her calm and is able to make it down to the boat to deliver the item with unknown purpose.
- Turns out that the Danish Resistance was using a mixture of rabbit’s blood and cocaine to temporarily ruin the sense of smell of Nazi search dogs. This enabled Jewish people to be smuggled in boats and not sniffed out by the dogs.
- Annemarie’s older sister died just before her wedding. She was hit by a car. At the end of the story, Annemarie learns that her sister was part of the Danish Resistance and a meeting was stormed by Nazi soldiers. When the people fled the meeting, some were shot. Others, like her sister, were run over by cars.
- Annemarie’s older sister’s fiance, Peter, was like an older brother to Annemarie. Peter was also part of the Resistance and helped coordinate Ellen and her parent’s escape. At the end of the story, we learn that Peter was captured and shot in a town square. In the Afterword, we learn about the actual person, Kim Malthe-Bruun, who inspired the storyline of Peter. Kim Malthe-Bruun was 21 years old when he was captured and executed.
- The Afterword discusses other parts of the story that were true. That is where we learn about what was on the handkerchief and if the dogs’ sense of smell is permanently or temporarily ruined. We also learn a little more of the truth of King Christian and that the Danes sank their entire navy so that Germans could not take over the ships for their own use.