What happens in Chapter 13 of Number the Stars?
Chapter 13 of Number the Stars begins in the early hours before dawn, with Annemarie waking abruptly to her father, who sends her on an urgent mission. Peter has mistakenly left behind a small packet—a handkerchief filled with a mysterious dried substance—that needs to reach Uncle Henrik's boat before it sets sail with the Jewish refugees hidden below deck. Annemarie ventures alone through the dark woods, clutching the packet and running along the path she knows by heart. She is confronted by a group of German soldiers and their dogs, who question her about what she is carrying. Maintaining her composure, Annemarie pretends to be a simple, scatterbrained girl delivering her uncle's lunch. The soldiers search her basket, examine the packet, and eventually allow her to pass. She arrives at the harbor just in time to hand the packet to Henrik. Only later does she discover what the handkerchief contained: a chemical compound that neutralizes the dogs' sense of smell, making the Nazis' most effective detection tool ineffective for the crossing.
Analysis
Lowry crafts Chapter 13 as a pressure-cooker moment, stripping Annemarie of all her adult protectors and putting the entire rescue mission on a ten-year-old's shoulders. The chapter's title—a single command—signals a shift from the cozy warmth of earlier sections; the prose quickens, and the sentences shorten as Annemarie ventures deeper into the woods. Lowry skillfully employs dramatic irony: the reader grasps the gravity of the packet far better than Annemarie, creating a tension that lingers. The soldiers' casual cruelty—breaking bread and mocking the girl—highlights the mundane brutality of an occupying force, while Annemarie's display of childish helplessness serves as a form of resistance, echoing the fairy-tale elements woven throughout the novel. Little Red Riding Hood, mentioned in an earlier chapter, resonates here: a girl alone in dark woods, with predators in her way. Yet Annemarie is far from a passive victim; she navigates the encounter with both performance and bravery. The handkerchief's hidden purpose—revealed only after the threat has subsided—reinterprets the chapter in hindsight, illustrating how ordinary items can bear extraordinary significance. Lowry also contrasts darkness and light: Annemarie races through the blackness toward the harbor, where dawn and safety meet. This chapter signifies her clear shift from a child observer to an active moral agent.
Key quotes from Chapter 13
“She was not at all afraid. She knew what she had to do.”
Annemarie steels herself at the edge of the woods, framing her courage not as the absence of fear but as the clarity of purpose that overrides it.
“'What is in this packet?' the soldier asked. Annemarie stared at him. 'It's only a handkerchief,' she said. 'My uncle is ill. It's a handkerchief for my uncle.'”
Stopped by the German patrol, Annemarie improvises under direct interrogation, her lie technically true enough to hold.
“The boat was still there.”
Arriving at the harbor, Annemarie's relief—and the reader's—is crystallized in five plain words that carry the full weight of the chapter's tension.
Check your understanding
Ask about this work
The reader has this chapter in front of it — the summary, the analysis, the key quotes and the vocabulary — along with the rest of the book’s chapters. Ask what happens and why it matters, or push back on a reading.
It cites the chapter or the line it is working from, and it says so plainly when the guide doesn’t cover something. It’s instructed never to write an essay, a paragraph or an answer for you to hand in, and never to grade anything — it will show you how to approach the question instead.
Sign in to ask the reader about this work — 1 credit a message.
Create an accountSign in