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Content Ratings

No Romance

There is no romantic content; relationships are entirely based on friendship and family loyalty.

Mild Themes

The novel exposes a young child to the reality of Nazi persecution, Jewish deportation, and the constant danger of discovery; the fear, loss, and moral weight of protecting others under occupation create genuine emotional intensity.

Mild Violence

German soldiers conduct frightening nighttime searches of homes; a family member is killed by the Nazis; the ever-present threat of arrest, deportation, and violence creates sustained tension even though most violence is offstage.

Synopsis

In German-occupied Copenhagen in 1943, ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen helps her family smuggle her Jewish best friend Ellen and her family to safety in Sweden, risking everything in the process. The novel presents the danger and moral clarity of resistance through a child's eyes, drawing on the true history of the Danish rescue of Danish Jews. A tense, moving, and beautifully written historical novel about courage and friendship.