Number the Stars tells the tale of Annemarie Johansen, a young girl living in Denmark during World War II. The book opens in 1943, three years after German soldiers first arrived to occupy the small country. After three years of living uneasily with this occupying force, the gloves finally come off as the German Nazis begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark. The Danish Resistance, made up of ordinary citizens like the Johansen family, works steadily to smuggle the Jews out of Denmark and over the sea to nearby Sweden. Annemarie, only ten years old, must find courage and maturity beyond her years within herself in order to help her best friend, Ellen Rosen, escape from the Nazis.

Annemarie and her mother, Inge, set out to smuggle Ellen across Denmark to Uncle Henrik's coastal home. Annemarie will eventually learn that her uncle, a boat...