Another children's book that drives home a big sigh!! Based on real events that happened during the evacuation of Jews from Denmark, WWII, this short story is very touching. On the street of Osterbrogade, in a small neighborhood in northeast Copenhagen, live best friends Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen. Over the last three years, they have lived under the Nazi eyes. Aware of the Rosen family's impending capture and relocation, the Johansens pretend Ellen is Annemarie's sister. Later, an elaborate escape from Denmark to Sweden is set into motion, (with the help of Annemarie's mother, her Uncle Henrik, and her late sister's fiance Peter Nielsen) and ten-year old Annemarie's bravery shines through.
'"I'll race you to the corner, Ellen!" Annemarie adjusted the thick leather pack on her back so that her schoolbooks balanced evenly. "Ready?" She looked at her best friend.'(opening lines)
'Annemarie stared up. There were two of them. That meant two helmets, two sets of cold eyes glaring at her, and four tall shiny boots planted firmly on the sidewalk, blocking her path to home.... And it meant two rifles, gripped in the hands of the soldiers. She stared at the rifles first. Then,finally, she looked into the face of the soldier who had ordered her to halt.... "Why are you running?" the harsh voice asked. His Danish was very poor. Three years, Annemarie thought with contempt. Three years they've been in our country, and still they can't speak the language.'(3)
"When will there be cupcakes again?"
"When the war ends," Mrs. Johnson said. She glanced through the window, down to the street corner where the soldiers stood, their faces impassive beneath the metal helmets. "When the soldiers leave."(10)
"Who is that man who rides past here every morning on his horse?" the German soldier had asked.
Papa said he had smiled to himself, amused that the German soldier did not know. He listened while the boy answered.
"He is our king," the boy told the soldier. "He is the King of Denmark."
"Where is his bodyguard?" the soldier had asked.... "The boy looked right at the soldier, and he said, "All of Denmark is his bodyguard."(13-14)
'Annemarie relaxed the clenched fingers of her right hand, which still clutched Ellen's necklace. She looked down, and saw that she had imprinted the Star of David into her palm.'(49)
'Annemarie looked around and nodded her head in agreement. The house and the meadows that surrounded it were so much a part of her childhood, a part of her life, that she didn't often look at them with fresh eyes. But now she did, seeing Ellen's pleasure. And it was true. They were beautiful.
The little red-roofed farmhouse was very old, its chimney crooked and even the small, shuttered windows tilted at angles. A bird's nest, wispy with straw, was half hidden in the corner where the roof met the wall above a bedroom window. Nearby, a gnarled tree was still speckled with a few apples now long past ripe.'(60)
'The words were unfamiliar to her, and she tried to listen, tried to understand, tried to forget the war and the Nazis, tried not to cry, tried to be brave. The night breeze moved the dark curtains at the open windows. Outside she knew, the sky was speckled with stars. How could anyone number them one by one, as the psalm said? There were too many. The sky was too big.'(87)
'Light woke her. But it was not really morning, not yet. It was only the first hint of a slightly lightening sky: a pale gleam at the edge of the meadow, a sign that far away somewhere, to the east where Sweden still slept, morning would be coming soon. Dawn would creep across the Swedish farmland and coast; then it would wash little Denmark with light and move across the North Sea to wake Norway.'(98)
'Mama spoke quickly, her voice tense. "Annemarie, go into the house and get the small basket on the table. Quickly, quickly. Put an apple into it, and some cheese. Put this packet underneath; do you understand? Hurry."'(104)
'Surely that gift -- the gift of a world of human decency -- is the one that all countries hunger for still. I hope that this story of Denmark, and its people, will remind us all that such a world is possible.'(Afterword, p.137)
a Random House Children's Book edition
132 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
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