Independent Reading Level: 9-11 years old
Awards & Honors: Newbery MedalWinner, 1990
Vermont Golden Dome Book AwardWinner

Independent Reading Level: Grade 4-5
Awards: John Newbery Medal (1990). Vermont Golden Dome Book AwardWinner (1991). National Jewish Book Award (1990). Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (1991).

This book is good for 5th grade and middle school students. This book is a historical fiction book about a young girl who lives in Denmark during the Nazi reign. Its a great story on friendship and standing up for what you believe in. I would have it in my class if I was teaching older students

I must have read this too young, because I remember being confused by the title vs themes, and I must have been 8 or 9, but didn't actually remember the plot at all. Maybe something about two friends on a sidewalk? but that could have been fun the cover. I also definitely thought Copenhagen was in the Netherlands at the time!

Anyway, I recently watched the Danish series "Seaside Hotel" which spans 15 years over nine seasons, ending in 1945. Some of the plotlines involved the Danish Resistance, and eventually remembered this book and thought to revisit it. It's a bit oblique about the war, avoiding anything too scary or traumatic. Meant for middle grade readers, the themes are mostly about personal bravery and fear, and how being afraid doesn't mean you aren't brave.

I definitely did not understand the urgency of sending Ellen and her family to Sweden when i was a kid, but I probably did take in the message about fear, because it felt very familiar. And now that I know more of the context, the fear for the Rosens and Johansens had a lot more meaning. Perhaps this book is better read alongside introductory lessons to the Holocaust, rather than in isolation as I did. ( )

Independent reading level grades four through seven.
Historical fiction ages 9+