The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark
The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark
Author: Carmen Agra Deedy
Illustrator: Henri Sorensen
Genre: Historical Fiction
Major Awards: Texas Bluebonnet Award, Christopher Award
Grade Level: K-4
Summary: This book is about how the King of Denmark, King Christian, helped his people stand up to the Nazis during their reign. When the Nazis first arrived, they hung their flag from the palace, but King Christian had a soldier remove it. A Nazi soldier threatened that another one would fly, and that if it were taken down again that soldier would be shot. King Christian said the Nazi would have to shoot him, then, since he would be the soldier. The Nazi flag no longer flew on the palace. Soon after, however, the order for all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David was made so the Jews could be taken away. Courageously, King Christian encouraged all of the Danes to wear a yellow star so that the Jews were protected because there would be no way to tell them apart, saving his people and his country.
Evaluation: I really enjoyed this book because it made a very difficult topic kid-friendly. Children can have the opportunity to learn about a dark period in history without being scared or overwhelmed with emotional content above their developmental level. The illustrations were wonderful and the story was simply told, but still captured the interest of the reader.
This book could be used for any grade (reading aloud in the younger grades, of course). Content-wise, this book would probably best act as an aid for older grades, but for pure interest alone it is a wonderful and interesting story for older readers. I think it is the perfect book to invite them into a genre they may not have previously wanted to explore.
Because I am not teaching older grades, this book would not fit well into my content so I don't see myself using it to teach a lesson or as a read aloud, but I would have it available to my students to read on their own. While reading, I was even thinking this would be a good book for my own children if they were interested in this topic, but were too young to get into such a dark period of history. This book could act as a stepping stone to start learning about this era.
This book could be used for any grade (reading aloud in the younger grades, of course). Content-wise, this book would probably best act as an aid for older grades, but for pure interest alone it is a wonderful and interesting story for older readers. I think it is the perfect book to invite them into a genre they may not have previously wanted to explore.
Because I am not teaching older grades, this book would not fit well into my content so I don't see myself using it to teach a lesson or as a read aloud, but I would have it available to my students to read on their own. While reading, I was even thinking this would be a good book for my own children if they were interested in this topic, but were too young to get into such a dark period of history. This book could act as a stepping stone to start learning about this era.
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