Number the Stars also received the National Jewish Book Award, which means that people who honor Jewish history and culture thought the book was important and valuable, and not just for young adults. Actually, it has won a whole bunch of awards given to awesome books for young adults. The Newbery Medal isn't the only trophy on this book's shelf.

This is a book about saving lives and doing what's right, no matter the (terrible) costs. (And later, she'd get major props for her amazing YA book, The Giver.) But with Number the Stars, our author took a turn for the serious. When the book first came out, Lowry was already established as the well-loved author of children's books like the Anastasia Krupnikseries. Written by Lois Lowry, this now classic young adult novel won the John Newbery Medal in 1990, one year after its publication.

We're just sayin'.) It gives us the story through a different lens than we're used to, which makes it all the more worthwhile. (Although this book was published sixteen years before The Book Thief.

Like Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief, this story is told from an unusual viewpoint: the main character isn't Jewish. Number the Stars is set in Denmark during World War II, when the country was full of Nazi soldiers and the Danish people had lost many of their freedoms. If your best friend were in terrible danger, and you weren't, what would you do? Would you stand by your friend and experience the threat together, or would you ditch your friend and save your own skin? That's the question that Annemarie, the main character in Number the Stars, has to answer-and it's the most important question of her life.

Number our stars