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Number the Stars · Garden Heights
Part 4
for Number the Stars · Part 4 · Chapters 7–8
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 4
Uncle Henrik’s world is everything Copenhagen is not: a crooked old farmhouse, a meadow running down to the water, a fishing boat called the Ingeborg, fresh air that smells of salt and apples. Kirsti adopts a gray kitten and grandly names it Thor, after the thunder god; Ellen, a city child, tastes real farm milk and — for an afternoon — something like peace. From the meadow’s edge the girls look across the sound: that low, hazy shoreline is Sweden — free, neutral, and achingly close. But the peace has machinery turning beneath it. Henrik and Mama trade sentences that carry double weight; Henrik announces that tomorrow will be ‘a day for fishing’ — and then comes stranger news: Great-aunt Birte has died, and her casket will rest in the living room tonight, with family and friends gathering to mourn. Annemarie is helping with the preparations when the floor drops out of the day: there is no Great-aunt Birte. There never has been. Her mother and her uncle — the two most honest people she knows — are lying, carefully, together, and the house is filling up for the funeral of a person who does not exist.
False peace, double-weight talk, and the invented funeral
Cross-Curricular
Codes and secret messages in wartime
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
7–8
The House by the Sea — Henrik’s farm brings salt air, a kitten named Thor, and Sweden visible across the sound; then the machinery turns: ‘a day for fishing’ tomorrow, and tonight a casket for Great-aunt Birte — a relative Annemarie is certain has never existed.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 7–8, then answer each question.
⛵Knowledge Bank · Reading Denmark’s Coastal Landscape
Maritime Geography · Farm, Shore, and HarborDenmark is a low, sea-shaped country of islands and peninsulas; no place in the country lies far from salt water. On northern Zealand, a meadow, farmhouse, harbor, and fishing boat can occupy one compact view. Coastal vocabulary therefore joins land and sea: a harvest gathers food from fields, a catch gathers food from water, a current is moving seawater, and a strait is a narrow channel between larger bodies. The Øresund separates Zealand from Sweden and narrows to only a few kilometers near Helsingør and Helsingborg. Fishing families learned to read wind, visibility, tides, and engine sounds because weather could change a routine trip quickly. Chapters 7–8 first use this landscape to contrast Copenhagen: open sky replaces watched streets, and fresh milk replaces rationed substitutes. Then adult words stop matching appearances. The map supplies concrete clues, but it does not yet explain the strange fishing remark or invented funeral. Holding those observations without forcing an answer is careful inference.
meadown.Ch.7–8
A grassy field, often near water
“The meadow ran from the farmhouse down to the sound.”
neutraladj.Ch.7–8
Taking no side in a war
“Neutral Sweden waited across the water.”
casketn.Ch.7–8
A coffin for a funeral
“The casket would rest in the living room.”
mournv.Ch.7–8
To grieve for someone who died
“Friends would gather to mourn Great-aunt Birte.”
deceivev.Ch.7–8
To make someone believe a falsehood
“Could her own mother truly deceive her?”
soundn.Ch.7–8
A wide channel of sea water
“Sweden lay hazy across the sound.”
bachelorn.Ch.7–8
An unmarried man
“Henrik was a cheerful bachelor with a boat.”
sturdyadj.Ch.7–8
Strongly built; solid
“The sturdy fishing boat rocked at its mooring.”
teasev.Ch.7–8
To joke with someone playfully
“Henrik loved to tease Kirsti about her kitten.”
appalledadj.Ch.7–8
Shocked and deeply dismayed
“Annemarie was appalled to catch her mother lying.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
1Taking no side in a war is being ___.Ch.7–8
2A ‘casket’ is a coffin for a funeral.Ch.7–8
3To make someone believe a falsehood is to ___ them.Ch.7–8
4To ‘mourn’ is to celebrate a victory.Ch.7–8
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.7–8
Word choices:meadowsoundbachelorcasket- some words will not be used
The ran from the farmhouse down to the water.
Sweden lay hazy across the .
6A wide channel of sea water is a ___.Ch.7–8
7A ‘bachelor’ is an unmarried man.Ch.7–8
8Shocked and deeply dismayed is ___.Ch.7–8
9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.7–8
Word choices:neutralteasedeceivesturdy- some words will not be used
Henrik loved to Kirsti about her kitten.
The fishing boat rocked at its mooring.
10To grieve for someone who died is to ___.Ch.7–8
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 7–8.
📋Knowledge Bank · How the Coast Shapes the Setting
Geography & Reasoning · Spatial EvidenceNorthern Zealand faces Sweden across the narrow Øresund. Near Helsingør, the two coasts are only about four kilometers apart, so the opposite shore may be visible in clear weather. That proximity makes Sweden concrete rather than imaginary, but water still separates the girls from it. Sweden was officially neutral during World War II, while Denmark was occupied, so the same view contains two political conditions at once. A map reader also notices infrastructure: Henrik’s house, meadow, path, harbor, and working boat are close enough to form one connected setting. Comprehension requires separating observation from interpretation. Students can observe the Ingeborg at its mooring, Henrik’s unusual emphasis on fishing, and preparations for a relative Annemarie knows never existed. They can reasonably infer that the adults share a serious plan, but Chapters 7–8 do not yet reveal that plan’s purpose. The strongest conclusion stays within the available evidence.
1What is Uncle Henrik’s house like?Ch.7–8
2What does Kirsti name the gray kitten?Ch.7–8
3From the meadow, the girls can see Sweden across the water.Ch.7–8
4What is the name of Henrik’s fishing boat?Ch.7–8
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 7–8. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.7–8
The girls gaze across the sound at Sweden.
News comes that Great-aunt Birte has died.
Henrik announces ‘a day for fishing’ tomorrow.
Kirsti adopts the kitten and names it Thor.
The girls arrive at Henrik’s seaside farm.
6Ellen has spent every summer on farms like Henrik’s.Ch.7–8
7What double-weight announcement does Henrik make?Ch.7–8
8What will happen in the living room tonight?Ch.7–8
9Annemarie remembers Great-aunt Birte from childhood visits.Ch.7–8
10What shakes Annemarie most at Part 4’s end?Ch.7–8
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Lois Lowry tells the story across Chapters 7–8.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Calm Before the Crisis
Literary Craft · Pacing and JuxtapositionWriters control pacing by deciding how much page space and sensory detail to give each moment. Before the unexplained gathering begins, Lowry slows the story for milk, sunlight, grass, animals, and a distant shore. This peaceful interval is not wasted time. It establishes what occupation threatens: ordinary family life and the freedom to move through a familiar landscape. The next change feels sharper because the reader has been allowed to relax. Placing unlike scenes beside each other is called juxtaposition. Here, pastoral calm sits next to an invented funeral; abundance on the farm sits next to scarcity in Copenhagen; visible Sweden sits next to adults whose intentions remain hidden. Lowry also preserves Annemarie’s limited viewpoint. The reader receives the same clues she does and no explanation from the planning adults. That gap between evidence and explanation creates uncertainty without requiring an action scene. By making the setting first feel safe, Lowry turns every strange phrase and preparation into pressure on that safety, building suspense through contrast.
Calm-before structure
Milk, meadow, kitten — one breathing chapter so the trapdoor of the funeral drops harder.
Coded speech
‘A day for fishing’ — innocent words with cargo; Annemarie now hears the code from outside.
The honest liar
A truthful mother lying well — the child’s moral crisis that the next chapters must resolve.
1The golden farm afternoon exists in the structure to ___.Ch.7–8
2Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.7–8
Word choices:codedplainrhymedsilent- some words will not be used
‘A day for fishing’ is speech.
3Annemarie’s crisis in Chapter 8 is that ___.Ch.7–8
4The reader learns the funeral’s true purpose before Annemarie does.Ch.7–8
5Sweden visible across the sound works in the story as ___.Ch.7–8
6Henrik’s cheerful teasing and farm routine function as ___.Ch.7–8
7The chapter measures the occupation again through food — real milk and butter after years of substitutes.Ch.7–8
8Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.7–8
Word choices:trapdoorladderbridgemirror- some words will not be used
The invented funeral lands like a .
9Naming the kitten Thor — a thunder god — adds ___.Ch.7–8
10Part 4 ends with the reader feeling ___ before understanding, mirroring Annemarie.Ch.7–8
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · Reasoning Before the Truth Arrives
Ethics & Reasoning · Evidence Under UncertaintyHonesty normally supports trust, so Annemarie’s shock at Mama and Henrik’s lie is reasonable. Yet ethical judgment requires enough information about a choice, its purpose, and its likely harm. A careful thinker separates observation from inference: Annemarie observes that no Great-aunt Birte existed, the adults coordinate their words, and guests are expected around a casket. From those facts she may infer that a serious plan is being concealed, but she cannot yet know whom it affects or why secrecy is needed. Turning that inference into a final conclusion would outrun the chapter’s evidence. This is called a provisional judgment: hold a belief lightly while looking for new facts that confirm or revise it. Trust need not mean blind agreement, and doubt need not mean instant condemnation. At the cliffhanger, the responsible question is not whether the lie is good or bad, but what evidence is still missing. Critical reading can remain active inside uncertainty.
Think back over these chapters. An old farmhouse leans into the sea wind, and a meadow rolls down to water that ends — just there, in the haze — at another country. A kitten with a thunder god’s name pounces through the grass. Real cream tops real porridge. And then, at dusk, the sentences begin to carry two weights each: an uncle speaks of fishing tomorrow as if fish were not the cargo; a mother sets chairs in a circle around a space where a casket will stand; and a girl who has never had a Great-aunt Birte watches the house prepare to mourn her.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “Part 4 argues that the rescue runs on ordinariness — a farm, a boat, a funeral.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2The farm as the girls see it, or The farm as the rescue needs it? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ The farm as the girls see itThe farm as the rescue needs it ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
The girls reach the crooked farmhouse→
Sweden shows across the hazy sound→
Henrik promises a day for fishing→
A casket is ordered for a nonexistent aunt→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Lowry lets Annemarie DISCOVER the lie (no Great-aunt Birte) rather than be told the plan, because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Reading passage · Codes and Secret Messages in Wartime · Inference & Author’s Purpose · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
🎯 You already have the skills from the sections above — this is just a fun way to meet real SAT & TOEFL-style questions. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer the questions below. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.
In an occupied country, the enemy may be listening to any telephone line and reading any letter — so resistance movements learned to hide their messages in plain sight. The simplest tool was the open code: ordinary sentences with secretly arranged meanings. A call about a carton of cigarettes, a remark that tomorrow would be good weather for fishing — to any listener these were errands and small talk, but to the right hearer they scheduled meetings, warned of raids, or announced that ‘cargo’ was on its way. Open codes were powerful because they offered deniability: even if suspected, a sentence about fishing could not be proven to mean anything else.
Governments used the same trick at broadcast scale. Each night the BBC’s radio service read out strings of odd ‘personal messages’ — nonsense to millions of listeners, but prearranged signals to specific resistance cells across occupied Europe: one strange sentence might launch a sabotage operation or confirm a supply drop. The stakes of such messages were absolute: a code understood meant families moved before a raid; a code broken meant arrests. The novel wraps this whole world into its quietest scenes — a phone call about cigarettes no shop has sold in years, a fisherman’s weather talk — and into its narrator’s position, too: like most Danes, Annemarie hears the codes without holding the key, and must trust the speakers instead of the words.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas
2In the passage, an open code is ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
3Why were open codes so powerful?TOEFL · Factual Information
4In the passage, deniability means ___.SAT · Words in Context
5What were the BBC’s ‘personal messages’?TOEFL · Factual Information
6What might one strange broadcast sentence do?TOEFL · Factual Information
7According to the passage, what did a code understood in time mean?TOEFL · Factual Information
8The novel’s cigarette phone call is an example of ___.SAT · Inference
9Why does the author end by comparing Annemarie with Danes who heard codes without holding the key?SAT · Author’s Purpose
10Insert Text (TOEFL). Look at the four squares [1]–[4] in the excerpt below. They show where this sentence could be added: “The safest message was often the one an accidental listener would consider too ordinary to repeat.”
In an occupied country, the enemy may be listening to any telephone line and reading any letter — so resistance movements learned to hide their messages in plain sight. [1] The simplest tool was the open code: ordinary sentences with secretly arranged meanings. [2] A call about a carton of cigarettes, a remark that tomorrow would be good weather for fishing — to any listener these were errands and small talk, but to the right hearer they scheduled meetings, warned of raids, or announced that ‘cargo’ was on its way. [3] Open codes were powerful because they offered deniability: even if suspected, a sentence about fishing could not be proven to mean anything else. [4]
Where would the sentence fit best?TOEFL · Insert Text
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 4 “A Day for Fishing”
Write the evening at the farmhouse from Uncle Henrik’s point of view — a fisherman preparing his boat for the strangest catch of his life, while nieces play with a kitten in the meadow. What does he notice? What does he deliberately NOT say at dinner? 6–10 sentences. End with the sentence he says aloud that carries two meanings.
You can start with: “I checked the nets twice, though it was not nets I would be needing...”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 4 Complete!
You finished Chapters 7–8 of Number the Stars.
Here are your auto-graded results:
-
points out of 100
Your Writing
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Lois Lowry. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Lois Lowry’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
