Fairy Tale References in "Number the Stars"
Author: Lowry, L.
Lowry, L. (2011). Number the Stars. Houghton Mifflin.
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Read the following references to fairytales, Lowry made in Number the Stars. Use the annotation functions to note down:
- What these references to fairytales mean to Annemarie;
- How Annemarie's views of fairy tales change
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Text Reference 1
“He was not like the fairy tale kings, who seemed to stand on balconies giving orders to subjects, or who sat on golden thrones demanding to be entertained and looking for suitable husbands for their daughers. King Christian was a real human being, a man with a serious, kind face.” (p.12) |
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Text Reference 2
The whole world had changed. Only the fairy tales remained the same. (p.17) |
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Text Reference 3
For a moment she felt frightened.But she pulled the blanket up higher around her neck and relaxed.It was all imaginary, anyway – not real.It was only in the fairy tales that people were called upon to be so brave, to die for one another.Not in real-life Denmark. Oh, there were the soldiers: that was true.And the courageous Resistance leaders, who sometimes lost their lives, that was true, too.
But ordinary people like the Rosens and the Johansens? Annemarie admitted to herself, snuggling there in the quiet dark, that she was glad to be an ordinary person who would never be called upon for courage. (p.26) |
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Text Reference 4
Annemarie stared at the window where the sky was outlined and a tree branch moved slightly in the breeze. Everything seemed very familiar, very comforting. Dangers were no more than odd imaginings, like ghost stories that children made up to frighten one another: things that couldn’t possibly happen. Annemarie felt completely safe here in her own home, with her parents in the next room and her best firend asleep beside her. She yawned contentedly and closed her eyes.” (p.42-43) |
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Text Reference 5
Suddenly, here in this sunlit kitchen, with cream in a pitcher and a bird in the apple tree beside the door – and out in the Kattegat, where Uncle Henrik, surrounded by bright blue sky and water, pulled in his nets filled with shiny silver fish – suddenly the spectre of guns and grim-faced soldiers seemed nothing more than a ghost story, a joke with which to frighten children in the dark. (p.69) |
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Text Reference 6
Annemarie continued the story in her head. “Suddenly, as Little Red Riding Hood walked through the woods, she heard a noise. She heard a rustling in the bushes.
“A wolf,” Kirsti would say, shivering with fearful delight. “I know it’s going to be the wolf!”
Annemarie always tried to prolong this part, to build up the suspense and tantalise her sister.
She would stop, would stay silent for a moment, and beside her in the bed she could feel Kirsti holding her breath.
“Then,” Annemarie would go on, in a low, dread-filled voice, “she heard a growl.”
Annemarie stopped, suddenly, and stood still on the path. There was a turn immediately ahead. Beyond it, she knew, as soon as she rounded the turn, she would see the landscape open to the sea. The woods would be behind her there, and ahead of her would be the harbour, the docks, and the countless fishing boats. Very soon it would be noisy there, with engine starting, fishermen calling to one another, and gulls crying.
But she had heard something else. She heard bushes rustling ahead. She heard footsteps. And – she was certain it was not her imagination – she heard a low growl. (p.111-112) |
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