Children’s books pack quite the punch when horrors of war take center stage
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry packs a punch after all this long time and Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt follows suit. Two children’s books for your TBR.
Wow, we got a couple of older works lined up today, one of which I recently listened to on audio. But a pair that will pack a punch well into the future. Across Five Aprils tells the story of Jethro Creighton, the youngest son in a family whose brothers and mentor go off to fight in the War Between the States.
Meanwhile, Number the Stars takes place about eight decades later in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Annemarie Johansson sees her country under Nazi Germany’s control. The kicker here is that her best friend, Ellen Rosen, is Jewish, which immediately heightens the tension.
Jethro and Annemarie are both trying to make sense of what’s going on as turbulence enters their worlds, thanks to the full-scale wars. The irony? Jethro’s side is fighting to force the Confederate States back into the Union while Annemarie is trying to wrap her head around why Denmark just let the Nazis march right into Copenhagen.
‘Pack quite the punch’ is an understatement
Most of you reading this are libertarian, and we’re about as anti-war as we can get, and rightfully so. Still, many have such a fascination with war that it’s dominated the literary and Hollywood landscape for generations, and that likely won’t change.
Heck, even my own books are plagued with war, even if it’s more of the antagonists chasing and cornering the protagonists, which tackles the natural right to self-defense. But a lot of us will lose fascination with war overnight if we read novels during such times that came from a child’s point of view, even if they’re somewhat shielded from its realities.
Jethro had to watch his brothers go, one of whom ended up fighting for the Confederacy. His teacher, Shadrach, also went to war, where he’d be severely wounded in Gettysburg. With Jethro having no means except for newspapers and word of mouth to stay updated, uncertainty and worry plagued him throughout the novel.
Early in Number the Stars, Annemarie notices a popular shop owner’s store is left vacant, with a sign written in German plastered to the front. It’s not long until it’s clear that the Nazis are rounding up Copenhagen’s Jewish population.
For me, these books took a toll since I put myself directly in their shoes. Imagine being a kid and noticing those you’ve gotten to know disappear, as in Annemarie’s case. For Jethro, he’d heard of how intense the fighting was and how Union soldiers were deserting, given the horrors they’d been forced to face.
The sad truth and harsh realities persist to this day
Both had to process, at a young age, the psychological effects of intense war, even if they didn’t see the carnage. And what’s even more tragic about this is, here in 2025, little has changed. We’ve had a global War on Terror, which has done nothing but create more terrorism since it was launched – see Enough Already by Scott Horton.
Fast-forward to today, where the War in Gaza, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the War in Yemen have taken hold in media spheres. Look at every war that’s been fought since World War II, and how many Jethro Creightons and Annemarie Johanssons are there? Tens of millions, if you want a conservative guess.
As for Jethro’s case, this war started for what? Because a group of states wished to exercise their right to self-determination and secede? Something Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute constantly reminds us?
A rapidly expanding central government led by a president who’s often deified in American history could have dismantled Union bases in the Confederate States. Instead, he decided to provoke the Confederacy into firing on Fort Sumter.
A rapidly expanding central government, led by a dictator rightfully maligned in world history, helped plunge the world into the deadliest conflict it had ever seen.
Randolph Bourne once said, “War is the health of the state.” That appeared to be the case between 1861 and 1865, especially when you consider the interventionism that followed, such as the Plains Wars, the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. As for the post-1945 world, has anything changed?
And to these people, they don’t care about how it affects kids or what they’re forced to deal with.
Number the Stars and Across Five Aprils are major recommendations…
These might be children’s books, but of all the works I’ve discussed, they may be the most moving. It’s easy to sit here in our comfortable chairs and look on at what’s happening in Gaza, Yemen, or Ukraine. Or from the local gym when MSNBC is blaring things from one angle and Fox News from the other.
Can we really grasp what war or its byproducts look like when we’re thousands of miles away? And while neither Lois Lowry nor Irene Hunt had seen action, they still plant the reader right in the middle of the situation, from Annemarie’s and Jethro’s respective points of view.
It gives us a strong idea, then, of what each conflict looks like up close and personal. Jethro had to deal with losing one sibling and coming close to losing his teacher. Annemarie had to watch her best friend go into hiding in neutral Sweden, not knowing when she’d see her again.
One major takeaway here is that, despite what Jethro and Annemarie went through, the older characters shielded many of the realities. Jethro, throughout Across Five Aprils, became more and more aware of those realities.
Annemarie found herself shielded more than Jethro, but her story took place over a substantially shorter period. Still, she had run-ins with the Nazis. She was there when her family played a major role in helping the Rosens and other Jewish families escape Denmark. And she took part in a courageous act, even if she didn’t realize it until afterward.
You want your kids to read these books
Historical fiction has always been that genre that isn’t my undisputed favorite, but one I’ll read time and again. Across Five Aprils and Number the Stars are two books that have stood the test of time with me, having read them in my teenage and pre-teen years, and again as I approach my mid-thirties.
==> Start Reading Number the Stars Today <==
They’re great books that, even from a child’s point of view, still grasp the sheer horror of both situations. Similar situations, despite the differences in time periods. Both books will show kids that war isn’t some Call of Duty game or even what they may see on mainstream news.
==> Start Reading Across Five Aprils Today <==
It’s a “game” of uncertainty, strife, and one that rips people from one another. Jethro had his brothers and mentor ripped from him, while Annemarie had her sister (before the novel), familiar faces, and best friend ripped from her.
