The book "The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark" is written by Carmen Agra Deedy and takes place during World War Two. The book begins by telling the reader that in the year of 1940, there were only Danes in Denmark. All different kinds of Danes that shared the same love for their King Christian. Every single morning King Christian would ride through the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark's capital alone and without a bodyguard. He did not need a bodyguard for he was loved by every woman, man, and child in his country and they would be his defense. Soon the Nazi's come into the story and placed the Nazi flag on top of the palace. They also brought food shortages, curfews, and fear. So King Christian sent a Danish soldier to remove the flag and when questioned about the missing flag by a Nazi officer, King Christian told him that he had a soldier remove it. In response to the Nazi officer saying there would be another flag flying the next morning, King Christian said he would send another soldier, when the Nazi officer told him that that soldier would be shoot, King Christian informed the officer that the soldier would be him; the Nazi flag stayed off the place. The next test that came to King Christian was the news that all Jews would have to wear a yellow star. Everyone knew about the bad things happening to all of the Jews and were fearful of what would happen and curious to see how their king would react.So King Christian had his tailor come in and sew something on his outfits and waited till the morning to give his people his response to the demand. The next morning, all the people of Copenhagen watched as their king rode through their streets without a bodyguard and a yellow star sewn onto his chest.
I think this book is a great way to introduce the idea of resistance for knowing what is right as well as starting a discussion on World War II. The idea of what happened during a war and relating it to the lives and experiences can be very difficult. While this book is fiction, there was a beloved king of Denmark that did ride through the streets of Copenhagen without any escorts, the king did support the Jewish resistance, and no Jew in Denmark had to wear a yellow star. This book inspires hope and that is one thing I really like about it. It gives a nice twist to a very dark past that many young students would not be able to grasp. What they can relate to is standing up to someone even if it was really scary. I think this is a great book for opening discussion and to show students the difference between historical fiction and historical books. At the end of the story, all of the facts that are really known about the king of Denmark are listed and it is stated that no one knows if this actually occurred or not.
Deedy, Carmen Agra (2000). The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.
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