Ethan’s Letter Essay #4: [Book Title]

Dear Blog,
I have just finished reading Number the Stars By Lois Lowry, the author of The Giver, a very popular book. This story takes place in Copenhagen, Germany and is about a German family’s escape from the Nazi’s.
The books starts out with ten year old Annemarie and Ellen as they are on their way to school in Copenhagen Germany. As they are walking they get stopped but some guards which later will be know as Nazis and are told to stop messing around. They find this weird and head back home. Ellen is a Jewish girl so she attends a different school than Annemarie does, but just because they don’t have the same beliefs doesn’t mean that they can’t be best friends, which they are. Now Annemarie and Ellen live in the same apartment building as each other and live just down the hall, Ellen usually is hanging out with Annemarie and they are inseparable. One day while Annemarie and Ellen were having a sleepover Annemarie’s parents were suddenly woken up by a loud knock at the door, Ellen knew it was the Nazis and started to freak out a lot, this was unsettling to Annemarie because she didn’t understand at first. The two nazis had demanded to see all the children in the home because they were checking for any Jewish people hiding out in others homes. Luckily to Annemarie’s father’s fast thinking he had told the Nazis that Ellen was their daughter but when they didn’t believe that he showed them some baby pictures of their dead daughter that kind of looked like Ellen. Seeing this they left and believed Annemarie. This was a scary experience for them and what made it even worse was when they found out in the morning that Ellen’s parents were taken.
I like that they start the book out like this because it starts the suspense
Another good thing about this book was when they added a kind of suspense and then had taken it away but brought back the danger and suspense to trick you. This happened when Annemarie’s family was try to take Ellen to go and meet her parents and when they got to the place, there were Nazis everywhere. This made the journey very difficult because not everyone would believe that Ellen wasn’t Jewish. This was a big conflict in the book because the author would tease the reader and make it seem like they caught Ellen but they never did until they got to the place where her parents were supposed to be. Ellen had arrived earlier than expected and had to wait out in a house with Annemarie’s family till her parents came and while everyone was sleeping some Nazis came and tried to take Ellen away because they knew she was Jewish. Luckily she was able to hide from them and they went away.
This was a really good book that I would rate 9/10 because it had all of the suspense that I love to have in a book and was also very historically accurate. It really keeps you on the edge of our seat and you don’t want to put the book down. I think that anyone who has any interest in historical fiction would like this book, the author did such a great job with all of the details and thought. It almost seems as if the author were Annemarie telling the story over again. I loved this book and would probably read it again sometime because I will remember how good it is.

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11 thoughts on “Ethan’s Letter Essay #4: [Book Title]

  1. Dear Ethen,
    I think you wrote a delicious letter essay. I liked the part when you talked about the conflicts with Ellen and Annmarie. I read this book too and I would say It was very good and rate it the same as you did. It is one of the only historical fiction books I like. I would say you could add more description on settings and when things take place.

    yours truly,

    Gwen

  2. Dear Ethan,
    I think you wrote a really good letter essay! One thing you did really well was summarize the book. You put a lot of detail into it so you could really picture what you were saying. One suggestion I have is to describe the city of Copenhagen more.
    From,
    Adrianna

  3. Dear E-Man,
    I really liked your essay! I liked how much effort you put into it. I liked how detailed your summary is. I have also read this story, and your summary was perfect. One thing to improve upon is add more background information about the author, because Lois Lowry is such a famous author. Overall though, great job!
    From,
    Max

  4. Dear Ethan,
    I really enjoyed reading your letter essay and I thank you for posting it to the blog. I really liked how in depth you went with your summary, describing every single thing the reader needed to know without giving away the ending. I also liked how you said that you thought that it was as if Annemarie was telling the story, that’s a good thing to notice. The only thing I can say to improve upon would be to maybe put in one more thing that you noticed, thought, or liked/disliked about the book. GREAT JOB!!!
    From,
    Trevor

  5. Ethan,

    Your letter essay was very well structured and flowed very nicely. There was no weirdly written sentences. I loved your summery, and if I had not read this book before, it would make me want to read it.

    Thanks for sharing, Ben.

  6. Dear Ethan,

    I really liked your essay. First thing I noticed was how you forgot to put the title of the book on the title page. I really like all the detail you included in your introduction of the book. I liked how you knew so much about the author and how you answered all the questions. I could tell that you put a lot of effort into this.
    From,
    Kayleigh

  7. Dear Ethan,
    Your essay was super good. Now I want to read this book.You explained it so well.Next time can you put the title of the book it was very confusing. Your summary was good too. Also you forgot to put in a quoted passage. All and all it was good but remember to put in the quoted passage.
    From,
    Birch

  8. Ethan,
    I really liked reading your letter essay. I remember reading this in sixth grade and you really made me remember it well. I also liked how descriptive you were with the book. I also just noticed that next time just add a quoted passage. But it was good!
    Coco

  9. Dear Ethan,

    Your letter essay was very good! I really enjoyed reading it. Your introduction is also very great! Nice work.

    LAmbo

  10. Dear Ethan,
    Your letter essay was very good! You put in a lot of effort IN that I am able to tell. Your introduction was also very god. Good ob ETHAN, good job…

    LAmbo

  11. Dear Etan Horburry,

    I really like how at the start of the book you talked about the author and how the author had written other books like The Giver for example. I really like how you structured everything in your essay and since I’ve never read this book before I think I might read it now since I’ve read this essay. Thanks for sharing!

    Jack G

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