Devil's Arithmetic: Novel-Ties Study Guide

Hannah is twelve, almost thirteen, and by now is very much bored with the tradition of going to her grandmother's house for Passover Seder every year. Every year, someone in the family is chosen to go to the front door and symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah in. This year, Hannah is chosen. She grudgingly drags herself to the door and as soon as she opens it she is immediately thrown back in time to 1942 Poland.

Everyone Hannah sees seems to recognize her, but she's surprised to hear they keep calling her "Chaya", her Hebrew name in honor of her Aunt Eva's deceased friend. Hannah understandably feels incredibly lost and out of place, which becomes evident to others with her behavior, but they chalk up "Chaya's" sudden strange ways to her having recently lost both her parents to a cholera epidemic that apparently also very nearly killed her.

Hannah doesn't immediately consider the possibility that she has time-traveled. Rather, she assumes it's a well orchestrated joke her family has carried out... or maybe a dream? It's not until someone uses a phrase Hannah's only ever known her grandfather to use that she starts to suspect the truth of her new reality. When it dawns on her just what this means, she tries to warn others of what their future holds, based on what she's learned so far in her own time period, but no one believes such premonitions of evil could be even remotely possible. Not until it's too late and the wheels of what is to be history are in motion.

Originally published in 1988, this story now reads dated in certain parts. There's mention of shows like General Hospital and movies like Yentl and Conan The Barbarian (btw -- spoilers in this book for the movie Yentl and the novel Little Women). That said, this story still holds up well when it comes to its themes of family bonds and the importance of educating oneself so as not to have horrible history repeated. Yolen's novel illustrates how a sense of community can develop in even the most hellish conditions, how vital that community becomes in terms of mental and physical survival. A reader can't help but be moved by how these characters cling to hope and faith to keep alive, the stolen moments of laughter when you know death is possibly imminent.

Hannah's realization of what her journey truly means, the epiphany she has near the end of the story, brought an honest tear to my eye... that final act of selflessness, the understanding she finally had of all her grandmother had endured.

At the end of the book, Yolen writes an afterword entitled "What Is True About This Book" where she breaks down the facts that inspired the story and what portions came directly from her imagination. If you want an enhanced experience of this book, I would recommend the movie adaptation starring Kirsten Dunst. It appears a little low-budget in the beginning, but ends up being a nicely done translation of this work.

This book, through Gifted English, was my middle school intro to the Holocaust. Because of it, I was fascinated with the period for months afterward. There are semi-graphic parts, but Jane Yolen strikes a good balance between telling the harsh truth while remaining mindful of her audience.

Hannah Stern is very much your typical young teen. Being Jewish has never meant that much to her; in fact, it can be embarrassing, especially when her Grandpa Will has what she considers extreme reactions to any mention of the Holocaust. In Hannah's mind, since concentration camps do not currently exist, there is no point in rehashing the past. That is, until she is forced to time travel back to Poland, circa 1942, and lose both her identity and many of her modern memories. Here, Hannah is known as Chaya, and although she knows what those mysterious men with big black trucks are up to, no one will listen. The people in the Jewish shetl, including the couple who claim to be her uncle and aunt, think Hannah is telling another of her many fantastic stories.

The themes here are myriad and make for wonderful classroom discussions. Appearance vs. reality is a big one, as is memory--how valuable is it? Why? What would you do if yours were taken, and how did the Nazis effectively do this to the Jews and others? Hannah and the other characters also struggle with how to use their knowledge of camp life and what is coming, because "knowing the wrong things can make you crazy." Man's inhumanity to man is also covered, as is the importance of heritage preservation. This is all done through well-developed characters and a tightly woven plot.

Speaking of those characters, many of them are wonderful studies in what it means to be human, and the triumph of the human spirit. Gitl and Rivka are the first that come to my mind; minor characters such as the rabbi and Yitzchak enter into the picture as well. As these people struggle to survive in the closest thing to hell ever engineered by human hands, you root for them, and for the ultimate triumph of their people.

As noted, there are some scenes that would be disturbing for the target audience. Stripping, head-shaving, and tattooing are described in detail. Physical abuse is common, and some characters make a failed escape attempt with disastrous results. The gas chambers are not seen or heavily described, but the threat of them hangs over the atmosphere constantly. Frank discussions of death are also common, to the point that the camp inmates understandably begin to dehumanize themselves. For those readers who are ready though, this is a book that begs to be read, discussed, and absorbed.

Hannah grows tired of attending her family’s Passover Seder; she’s sick of listening to the adults reminisce about the past. What’s the point? World War II is over. But when Hannah opens the door to symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah, she is suddenly transported back to the year 1942. In this past world, she is known as Chaya and has an aunt and uncle she’s never seen before. As time goes on, she is moved to a Nazi concentration camp, and her memories of her life as Hannah slowly start to fade. Only Hannah — Chaya — knows the horrors that await the Jews, and she has no idea how to save them. She doesn’t even know who she is anymore.

When I was younger, I had Jewish step-siblings. To accommodate them, we started celebrating the Jewish holidays in addition to our own, and would say the Hamotzi prayer before meals. Our Seder celebration was not as traditional as the one in "The Devil’s Arithmetic." I actually learned a great deal about Seder and the Holocaust from this novel. I thought the plot was very unique. Before reading, I was very weary that it would be a boring story, but I found myself intrigued and eager to read on. It’s not that it was an exciting story, or an unpredictable one, just that it was plain interesting. I liked that the book didn’t give a reason why Hannah traveled back in time. My friend wanted answers, but I think we already know them. It’s all about remembering. It’s a little ambiguous, yes, but I don’t mind.

The novel is told in third-person from Hannah’s perspective. Hannah was very endearing, especially as Chaya. In the beginning, it is easy to see that Hannah is twelve years old — she picks on her baby brother, she whines a lot, and she yearns to be one of the adults. As Chaya, it’s hard not to sympathize with her. I mean, I’d be pretty confused if I was suddenly transported to a different time period. She knows what happens to the Jews and tries to warn the others about the Nazis and the camps and the gas ovens; she tells the Rabbi that she is from the future, and of course he dismisses her like any sane person would. Through the whole novel, I just want to hug the poor girl. I loved Schmuel and Gitl, and a certain scene involving one of them almost made me cry. I knew it would be a sad book because it’s about the Holocaust, but still.

I really liked Yolen’s writing. Though the novel focused on a young girl, Yolen’s writing was mature yet easy to understand. Her descriptions were very vivid — I almost felt like I was watching a movie rather than reading a book. I think this is a great novel to introduce young readers to such a difficult topic as the Holocaust. It is a tough subject but easy literature, and having such a young girl as the main character is a great way to help young readers relate.

My Thoughts: This book was instantly appealing to me. I'm Jewish, and so I'm always looking for more books from a jews' POV during WW2 (my parents keep telling me to read Anne Frank, I've just never gotten around to it). Anyways, THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC met and exceeded my expectations. Although it was a shorter book, I still felt like some parts could have been taken more advantage of. However, I still really liked Chaya, Rivka, and especially Gitl. This book easily could've been way too dark and harsh of a story for kids to connect with efficiently, but the characters kept it upbeat and a lighter read. I was touched and felt tears pricking my eyes near the end of the story; the tear-jerking, hair-ripping thing about this book is that we all know what's going to happen, we just are kept on suspense the entire time until it does. I thought the story was really clever with the plot line. The writing didn't really connect with me, except at the end (how COULDN'T you be connected with that?). To be honest, I really only liked the storyline, which was incredible. I would recommend to most but with caution - it's a hard subject to handle and to go into depth with and you might not get into the story. Overall, I really enjoyed this as a short, informative, touching read.

Jane Yolen has crafted a magnificently mesmerizing piece of literature in 'The Devil's Arithmetic'. Maybe it's because it hits close to home for me since I am Jewish and have family who both survived and perished in the Holocaust. However, Yolen's fictional telling of realistic events is sharp and focused, taking readers back to a time that we can only hope will never occur again in our time or any future time.

The storyline revolves around Hannah, a young girl who is sick of going to Jewish holiday dinners and hearing about the past. History is not what she finds relevant, so when she arrives at a Passover seder with her family, she has already decided that she is tired of living through the same stories over and over again. She wonders what every kid does at some point - isn't there anything new and happy to talk about? Soon enough, though, she begins to understand the trying nature of the stories that her family is telling, as she is somehow transported back in time, to 1942, just before the people in the village she finds herself in are being taken away, supposedly for relocation, despite her insistence that she knows better. The stories she has found herself angry about hearing over and over again are all she can think about as she tries to make the family she finds herself with in the past believe that true and terrifying danger lurks before them. Obviously no one takes her seriously, as the girl she supposedly is in the past has not been well, so her "stories" are seen as remnants of the sickness that she had. Even when her "family" and the people of her village are taken away for this supposed "relocation," no one gives her her due, saying that they should have believed her. They are all too enmeshed in the horrors that have been thrust upon them.

Hannah tries to make sense of the world around her, wondering how she ended up back in time, and through a series of events, she even forgets her true life, causing her to stress even more about how she can help save others as well as herself. This beautifully told tale will rile you up and make you see how hard it can be to sway others' opinions, but show you at the same time that you must try, unless you want life to remain as it is, even in times of hardship. It will also bring tears to your eyes as the fictional telling intertwines with true stories of people's struggles to survive and their loss of will to live as they fall deeper and deeper into the trenches of the Holocaust and all the unspeakable horrors that befell six million Jews and countless others who died during that awful time in the world's history.

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As an adult reader, I must admit to not expecting great things, as the story opens with a modern American Jewish family celebrating Seder. "Passover.. is about remembering," Mama tells her bored, slightly spoilt daughter Hannah - the horrific WW2 losss of the older generation wash over the girl, who has heard it all before.

Then, in a deft bit of time travel, Hannah finds herself living in a Polish shtetl in 1942 with an unknown family. It's the eve of a wedding and everyone is happy, but the Nazis are close at hand... As she experiences the horrors of life in a concentration camp, she understands the desperate yearning to survive:

"Everyone knew that as long as others were processed, THEY would not be. A simple bit of mathematics, like subtraction, where one taken away from the top line becomes one added on to the bottom. The Devil's arithmetic."

The Devil's Arithmetic won the National Jewish Book Award (in the category for children's literature) in 1989 and was nominated for the Nebula award for best novella in 1988. There's no question that it earned those honors. (It also apparently inspired an award-winning movie starring Kirsten Dunst, which I haven't seen.)

It's the 80s or 90s (or so) and 12-year-old Jewish American Princess Hannah, from New Rochelle, is arm-twisted into going to a family Seder. You can practically see her roll her eyes at the experience, just as many of my friends did at the time. Hannah's grandpa Will and his sister Eva are concentration camp survivors, however, and the former is just a little out-of-control on the subject of remembering. There's nothing quite like a pre-teen responding to an adult's intensity to make a 12-year-old say, "Yeah, WHATever."

Except when Hannah goes to open the door to greet the prophet Elijah, she's transported back to rural Poland in 1942. Right before the Nazis arrive to take all the Jews to a concentration camp....

Yolen does a very good job of putting the reader into Hannah's skin. And the tough part: How would a 12-year-old cope with the time travel? or the adults around her (since the girl doesn't remember "who she is" as Chaya)? What can Hannah/Chaya say, given that she knows what the Nazis plan (that this is not "resettlement")?

It sounds like a downer of a book, and... yeah, I guess it is. But the storytelling is strong, and I think it'd be a good novel to give to a kid (it's listed as "age 10 and up") in order to provoke discussion: How does history affect us today? What would YOU say and do in Hannah's circumstances? and so on. Quite a few incidents imparted in the story (which are familiar to me, though I grew up with an obsession about the Holocaust) will be new to most kids, and may be nightmare-inducing. Even if the kid doesn't want to read the novel, though, most adults (certainly those of Jewish descent) will enjoy it.

The Devil’s Arithmetic is a historical fiction novel that teaches us the lesson that we must never forget. Hannah does not truly appreciate her family’s past until she time travels into the past—1942 Nazi controlled Poland to be exact. As she journeys through that time period as Chaya, she learns the true story of what it was like to be Jewish. Through her eyes, we are able to witness packed train cars, work camps, tattoos carved into one’s arms, hunger, cruelty, the chance of escape, and pure desperation as if we have been transported to that work camp as well. In the midst of all the heartache, there is a beauty and hope in Jane Yolen’s words as well that helps the reader and Chaya survive through this hell. This story helps us not to take for granted the simplest of things—food on our tables, shoes on our feet, and families who can share their history for us. Throughout the book, we wonder, as does Chaya, if she will ever return as Hannah. We also learn exactly what the Devil’s arithmetic is. If you are in want of a good page turner with a lot of heart, this book is a must-read for older children and adults.

"The Devil's Arithmetic" brings readers into the world, or maybe both worlds, of a young Jewish girl named Hannah Stern living in New Rochelle in New York City.
During a Seder at her grandfather's house Hannah is given the privilege of opening the door to allow Elijah to enter, which she does hoping that the meal and "remembering" will end soon so she can just go home. When she opens the door instead of seeing the hallway and the door across the hall she is transported to Poland and into the body of a girl named "Chaya". As she follows along with what she suspects of being an elaborate joke she begins to realize that she really has been placed into this world in which she doesn't know how to get back to her time. To make matters worse Nazis appear to take her and her new family to a future that she can only remember from what her teachers told her in school.

This book was wonderfully written, even as a children's book it held my attention and at times gave me a chilling realization of what it was like for the people that experienced that life and death.

Twelve-year-old Hannah Stern lives in New Rochelle, NY, with her parents and her younger brother Aaron (whom she calls Ron-ron). The entire family goes to Grandpa Will and Grandma Belle’s home in the Bronx for the Passover Seder. Several aunts and uncles are also there, but Hannah is tired of hearing her relatives always talking about the past, not only the Exodus but especially the Holocaust. However, when she symbolically opens the door to welcome the prophet Elijah, she finds herself transported to a small Jewish village in Poland during the year 1942. At first, she thinks she is just a little woozy or maybe having a dream as a result of drinking the Passover wine.

Hannah is now Chaya Abramowicz, whose parents have died in Lublin of a plague and who now lives with her aunt Gitl and uncle Shmuel who is soon to marry Fayge Boruch, daughter of a nearby rabbi Reb Boruch. Chaya herself has just recovered from the disease and is very weak. However, as Hannah settles down to life with Gitl and Shmuel, the Nazis come while everyone is arriving at the neighboring village for Schmuel and Fayge’s wedding to take all the Jews to a concentration camp where she meets another young girl named Rivka. What will happen to Chaya/Hannah? Will she ever make it back to her own time and home in New Rochelle? My friend Natalie Bishop said of this book, “I remember when the teachers said they needed to teach the kids about death, I suggested using real events such as the Holocaust (Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic is a good one).”

Sigh. The Holocaust is certainly an important subject, and everyone, including children, need to remember it. It is just that I have read so many children’s books about it that they get a little old after a while. This one certainly has a different twist with a surprise ending. Of course, the story centers on some horrible events. The name of God is used as couple of times as exclamations, the word “bas*ard” is found, even Chaya begins to call a woman a “bi…,” and the “h” word is said once, though not as an interjection. A suicide is recorded, references to the “smokestack” where Jews are cremated occur, and there is a mass shooting. Also, smoking a pipe and drinking wine are mentioned. This is not a bad book, and there is nothing really undesirable, but parents will need to take into consideration appropriateness for age and sensitivity of children.

As a Jewish adult, I was raised surrounded by Holocaust/Shoah literature, television shows and gentle explanations from loved ones. There was never a time that I recall not knowing about the atrocities that were committed against millions of victims. However, as time passes and fewer witnesses remain alive to talk about their experiences, more children are growing up without understanding what took place during this era.

Jane Yolen is a powerful young adult author who manages to perfectly balance sharing this heartbreaking, gruesome history without excessively graphic descriptions. The beauty of Yolen's historical fiction is that she has the ability to create detailed characters and place them in a historical context with an unexpected twist when time travel brings the two eras together. Rather than cobbling together an unbelievable explanation for the time travel, she gracefully leaves the question unanswered.

There are some Yiddish expressions used in conversation, but most of them are explained. The few that aren't can either be figured out from context or skipped if necessary.

I hesitate to put a specific age recommendation on this book. For a young child familiar with the holocaust, it would be a good choice. An especially sensitive older child or one unfamiliar with the subject may not be ready for the intensity of this subject material until their teens. However, the story is so well written that I would not hesitate to recommend it to an adult, as well.

For the record, I am almost 45 years old and this book STILL makes me cry every time I read it.

...Yolen does a commendable job of presenting such a subject to younger readers, without simplifying the horror too much. That is to say, she treats it with the sensitivity such a subject deserves with a young audience, but she does so without really sugar-coating anything or trying to "shield" readers from some of the more tragic moments...Hannah, as a modern young teenager, is a character with whom many kids in today's world can relate...The plot itself, as far as the teleportation, is reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz...All in all, I found The Devil's Arithmetic to be a very emotional read, albeit relatively brief...I find myself re-reading and re-watching books and films on the Holocaust quite often, and I see this being one of my frequent re-reads in the future.

(Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger)

THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC by Jane Yolen is required reading at my school, as it is in many middle/junior high schools across the country. I've been meaning to read it for several years but never did, until my son read it this year as an eighth grader. He insisted I read it. How could I resist that?

Hannah is celebrating Passover Seder with her family. It's the same thing every year. Grandpa will get all worked up over old photos on TV, shaking his fist, screaming about the numbers on his arm, and Aunt Eva will calm him down as she always does, laying a hand on his arm, leading the same old Jewish prayers as Hannah mumbles along. But this year will be different. Hannah's brother, Aaron, will get to hide the afikoman, Hannah will get to taste real wine, and then she'll get to open the door to symbolically welcome in the prophet Elijah.

But when she opened that door, she had no idea just how different this year's celebration would be.

Instead of seeing the hallway in front of her as she expected, she sees a man coming her way, crossing a field. Confused, she turns back to her family and instead sees a strange woman, dressed even more strangely, kneading dough on a wooden table. Hannah's confusion grows as she hears herself referred to as Chaya, and discovers that these two people believe themselves to be her Aunt Gitl and Uncle Shmuel. More unbelievably, they talk about her parents' deaths, and that she herself had nearly died, sick for weeks.

Feeling like she's in a dream she can't wake up from, she finds herself pulled into wedding festivities, which includes walking to a nearby village for the celebration. There, her dream turns into a nightmare. Hannah is slowly disappearing as Chaya is loaded onto trucks with the other villagers. Then, later, they are prodded like cattle aboard boxed railroad cars with no ventilation, and they travel, standing, for four days and nights without food or bathrooms. What follows is days, weeks, maybe months, in a Jewish concentration camp.

Jane Yolen's telling of the Holocaust is chilling. She gathered information from survivors, those heroes who remember so that the atrocities of the past will never happen again. Ms. Yolen writes in her final pages to the reader, "That heroism - to resist being dehumanized, to simply outlive one's tormentors, to practice the quiet, everyday caring for one's equally tormented neighbors. To witness. To remember. These were the only victories of the camps."

This book is incredibly powerful. The way Ms. Yolen weaves the past and present together forces the reader to make personal connections. She makes the reader think and ask questions. How could society have allowed such a thing to happen? And, more importantly, how can we assure that it will never happen again? I truly hope THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC will remain required reading in schools. Each new generation must bear the weight of those lost souls upon their heart. They must believe that such devastating events can, and did, happen. Only in believing and remembering can we move forward to a better society.

Thank you, Ms. Yolen, for this riveting and thought-provoking book.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

This book won the National Jewish Book Award, among others. The Devil's Arithmetic is the story of young Hannah, a modern-day Jewish girl from New Rochelle, who opens a door, and finds herself living during the Holocaust.

The modern-day Hannah is weary of her family's Passover Seder gatherings, especially her grandfather's rantings and ravings about the past. She knows that her Grandfather Will and his sister Eva survived a concentration camp, the only members of their family to do so. But it's hard to relate to that, in modern-day America.

When Hannah goes to the door to let in Elijah (part of the ritual), she finds herself in another world, living the life of her long-ago namesake, Chaya Abramowicz. It's 1942, and the recently orphaned Chaya is with her extended family in a Polish Jewish shtetl, celebrating her uncle's wedding day. Before the wedding can take place, however, Nazi's appear, and begin the dreaded process of "relocating" the villagers. The remainder of the book follows Hannah/Chaya's experience traveling to and living in a concentration camp. Gradually her memories of life as Hannah desert her, and she becomes immersed in her terrible surroundings.

The Devil's Arithmetic is a powerful story, utterly gripping, though not for the faint of heart. Jane Yolen doesn't shrink from the realities of the Holocaust, though she doesn't dwell on gory descriptions. The book introduces children to the story of the Holocaust in a much more powerful way than simply learning the facts ever could. Reading about the feelings of a protagonist their own age as she experiences the indignities and terrors, large and small, makes the Holocaust much more real. Though no easier to understand.

You can read Jane Yolen's thoughts about the book on her website. She says, "Writers and storytellers are the memory of a civilization, and we who are alive now really must not forget what happened in that awful time or else we may be doomed to repeat it."

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on June 17th, 2006.

This was a very well done historical fiction. The characters are all well developed and the story flows exceptionally well. A poignant reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. I believe books like this are important and significant in that they tell new generations of what happened so that it cannot happen again.

The Devil's Arithmetic

by Jane Yolen

Are you ready to dig a little deeper into Judaic History and HERstory?

I sure was. I discovered The Devil's Arithmetic. This wonderful tale is the perfect book for you to read aloud or just as a book to curl up and read in beds on a rainy day. This fascinating book will bring you to the Holocaust and back again in a Jew's eyes.

Have you ever cared about what happened 60 years ago, or 6000 years ago? Well 12 year old Hannah sure didn't. Why is her grandpa yelling at the television? What is that string of numbers on his arm? Was her grandpa going crazy? She was embarrassed. What if her friends came over and he started yelling at them. She didn't understand. She couldn't. Why is she supposed to celebrate Passover every year? There is not even any proof that the tales in the Passover Haggadah are true.

Hannah Begins to understand when she is somehow transported back in time through a door at her grandparents' Passover Seder. She arrives in another Jew's body, to a time that will change hers, and millions of Jews' lives forever, the Holocaust. She is helplessly ignored and thought to be sick in the head when she tries to voice the deathly horrors that await the Jewish people...

Hannah arrives at the house of two Jewish siblings before the Nazis were known. She is called Chaya and lives with her uncle Shmuel and his sister Gitl and she is just beginning to understand why Judaism is important when she is taken by the Nazis, with millions of other Jews, to the concentration camps. She gets to live the hard life of a Jew in the holocaust. She is discovering the wonders and lifestyle of her family before her.

When is this dreaded nightmare going to end? Is She dreaming? She knows this strange place is a reality when she is stamped with a string of numbers much like her grandfather's. What does it mean? How is she going to get home? Where is home?

I loved this book because I got to live in the 1940s as a Jew in a concentration camp. I was able to understand what it was like to have to work to stay alive. It made me realize how many things we take for granted every day: a place to sleep, food to eat, a roof over your head and even life. This book will give you a better understanding of the holocaust from a Jew's point of view. There Is a famous quote that says "Live every day as if it is your last, because someday it will be." This book lives up to that quote and gives an explanation of the idea. This is also a great book for children because it explains about the holocaust without making it seem scary. Although the weight of reading about the holocaust may become overwhelming, the understanding that you come away with will make it well worth your while.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

When Hannah Stern and her family go to Grandma Belle and Grandpa Will's house for Passover, she wishes she were somewhere else. When she is asked to open the door for Elijah, she is transported back to World War II. She is called Chaya by her Aunt Gitl and Uncle Shmuel. Shmuel is going to be married the next day to Fayge, the rabbi's daughter, and Chaya is going, too. But when they go to the wedding, Germans stop them and say the jews are going to be resettled, but Chaya knows whats going on, they are going to a concentration camp. They are loaded on the trucks till they arrive to the camp. Chaya, Gitl, Shmuel, and Fayge and all the other are sent in the get their heads shaved and a tattoo of a number on their arm. Chaya learns how to survive although some of her friends become musselman, and they do not care if they live or go into "Lilith's Cave." Near the end of the book, a guard finds Chaya, Rivka, and a few other girls talking and not working. But Chaya sacrifices her own life for Rivka and is killed. She is then sent back to who she used to be and it as if nothing happened. This was a good book. It was very realistic. It showed you that you need to be thankful for things. It also showed a good form of suspense.

This book was realistic in most of the parts in the book. It showed the truth of the holocaust and helps you to understand how bad it was. It showed the hardships they went to and how they were treated. For instance how they didn't have any food and barely any cloths. It also shows a young girl who does not understand her people's history which is true in real life how many people don't know.

This book showed you that you need to be thankful for things. In the beginning of the book, Hannah did not understand how the Jews were treated and why you needed to be thankful. She just thought it was "just another Jewish holiday," were they are all about being thankful so it didn't matter. But then when she got sent back in time she started to understand. Although she had to go through pain, and see death, she finally learned. By the end of the book she is thankful and can understand why they celebrate that holiday. I think that was a great example for anyone that reads this book.

This book was very suspenseful. It always kept me on my toes, wondering what was going to happen next, how would the ending be, and would Chaya ever get back home? I always wanted to know what was going to happen. Even at the beginning of the book when she got sent into the past, I wanted to know where she was, what had happened. When the black trucks came, you learned early on where they were going to be taken to, but I still didn't know what was going to happen to them when they got off. The biggest question was if she could survive the camp.

This was a great book. It almost gave you a sense that you were there with Chaya. Even though it's good that it was really realistic, it was hard to read about all that pain and all those deaths knowing that it happened in real life. It was sad. But the book was still really good. I recommend it to any one that wants to read a good book.

The Devil's Arithmetic

Sure, many people have opened the door to welcome Elijah into their Seder, but few have ever gone back in time. In The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, Hannah has. Hannah always dreads going to her family's Seder, but this year, she goes back in time to a Polish Village in the year 1942. Surprised at this sudden change, from apartment building to hut, Hannah is also able to understand when they spoke Yiddish.

When Hannah finally starts to understand the Polish way of life, Nazis come and take them away to a concentration. But only Hannah, from the future, knows the unspeakable horrors that await. Nobody believes her. They think of her as foolish, and that these horrible things could never happen to them. At the concentration camp, Hannah learns what real suffering is like, through the way of starvation, physical labor and losing loved ones. Hannah goes back in time and "becomes" Chaya. They are both twelve and look very much alike with mouse brown hair and bangs. In this moving story, the author gets a bit of the history of the Jews from a first-person angle.

Jane Yolen used beautifully descriptive language that captured the reader and painted a perfect picture. For example, in this passage, you are able to draw a picture of Fayge:

"...She was all in white, with an elegantly beaded headdress capping her hair. Her hair was jet black, so black that it didn't even have lighter highlights, and electric with curls spilling over her shoulders. There were gold rings on her fingers and gold dangling from her ears. She had a strong nose and a fierce, piercing look, like a bird of prey..." You can also get an "inside scoop" on some of the Jewish traditions. The author also gives you a pinch of the Yiddish language.

This wonderful piece of historical fiction that has received the National Jewish Book Award deserves an A+! This book would be suitable for anybody interested in reading a very descriptive novel with good figurative language. You get a fine idea of how many Jews during World War II lived a life of terror.

By Adriana Lily Garcia, Rebecca Carnevalla, Maggie Honig and Christi Faye Stedman

Picture this, you are a thirteen year old girl who hates going to her family Seder. You're forced to go anyway, and you open the door for the prophet Elijah. In the award winning (National Jewish Book Award) novel the Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, weird things start to happen. Jane Yolen captivates the heart and soul in each and every reader, ensuring that readers will be delighted to the fullest.

The Devil's Arithmetic is about a girl named Hannah at her Passover Seder she opens the door to the prophet Elijah and ends up in a small village in 1942. It's during the second World War, before this Hannah lives in New Rochelle with her father, mother, and little brother. But after that fateful night, when she was hurled into the past she became different. People keep confusing her with someone else, a girl named Chaya. They talk about her parents, dead from Cholera and a place called Lublin. But her parents are fine aren't they? At a wedding,Hannah, the bride, groom, and everyone else are captured by the Nazi's and taken to concentration camps. Once there, Hannah doesn't know past from present. In this book Hannah goes from being selfish to fighting for the Jews, being strong although people have lost all hope, and being brave even though she knows only fate lie ahead. Jane Yolen brings the past into the present with this dynamic book that draws you into the setting. It makes you want to cry, and in the end sigh with relief. This book tells you to never give up and to be grateful for what you have. It is a lesson on how cruel people can really be.

Everyone will enjoy this captivating book about survival. I would recommend this book to kids age 11 and up. People who enjoy history and survival books will appreciate this astounding story about the Holocaust by the wonderful author Jane Yolen.

Devil's Arithmetic is about the Holocaust. Hannah goes with her family to celebrate a Jewish holiday called Passover. She really doesn't want to go but when she gets there she'll need to act serious about why she's there. As part of her religion, she opens the door and when she gets on the other side she gets transported somewhere but she doesn't know where. A lady named Gitl claims to be Hannah's Aunt. She had told Hannah that her name is Chaya and that she got very sick in Lublin and that her two parents died. Gitl says her brother Shemuel is getting married and that they are going to the wedding. They arrived at the wedding but there are Nazis (A German group in World War 2) there that arrested them because they are Jews. They all get put on a train and get sent to concentration camps. She gets separated from the others and they shave her hair. Hannah meets a girl named Rivka, who tells her a lot of great stuff to keep the both of them alive! The Devil's Arithmetic is an awesome book. At first it starts out really slow and boring but after a while you can't put it down. The names in the book are really hard to pronounce (Like Chaya and Gitl) but after they get into the concentration camp you'll get so into the book it doesn't really matter. As long as you get the main idea of the names it's all right. You can make your own versions of the names. During the concentration camp it feels you're in there when Hannah got her hair shaved off. It is so thrilling as if you've keep reading to find out what happens next. Like what happens to Hannah? Does she die? Things like that, so during the book you're asking yourself questions. There are some sad parts, like when Hannah's friend died in the train when they got moved to the concentration camp. All in all, I think Jane Yolen is a great author. She takes some fantasy and puts you in time to make you feel you're in the book, and so she puts some realistic fiction in it too for a spectacular book! The book has an outstanding ending! It will surprise you like you would have never have thought possible. Some parts may be sad and sickening but it's the Holocaust it's going to be. There are always surprises around every page. In the beginning it is kind of confusing and slow, don't let that stop you because the ending is terrific!!!

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The more that are added the more that are subtracted...

"The devil's arithmetic," that was what Gitl called it. Everyday, more and more Zungangi arrive at the camps. Everyday more Jews are chosen. The more in the camps the less in the world. Adding and subtracting. The children think the work is hard, but the Jews hated it because they subtracted lives and added Jews to the horror.

It all started when Hannah, a young Jewish girl, resented going to her family's traditions. She symbolically opened the door to the prophet Elijah after she drank too much wine at her family's Passover Seder. She is transported back in time to 1942, just before the Holocaust. The Nazis came and took the Jews away. Hannah tried to warn people about the concentration camps but nobody believed her. Hannah learned why all of her relatives were so upset about the numbers on their left arms.

The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, was very descriptive and touching, especially when Chaya makes a sacrifice -a big one- for family, friends, and religion. This was a fabulous insight on what really happened in the Holocaust. This book made you feel like you were really in the concentration camps and you could almost hear the harsh voices and smell the horrible smells of blood and sweat.

We highly recommend this book for readers of all ages. It gives you a whole other opinion on the Holocaust and lets you really know how horrible it was and how many people died long, slow, painful deaths. It makes you cry, laugh, smile, and opens up a whole new point of view.

She wakes up, people surrounding her in a lit room she wondered where she was since nothing seemed familiar. Why were they calling her Chaya? Who were those people surrounding her? Why did she feel so... Different? Why did she feel like she was in somebody's else's body with her own thoughts, and why was she here all the way in 1942?

These are some of the thoughts that are thought troughout the book by a 12 year old named Hannah. Hannah hates going to her Seder celebration every Passover. Nothing ever happens and all those crazy relatives. "Aghh!" a liveing nightmare for Hannah, she never really knew what the big deal was about, what happened to her grandfather in the past and the stories about her people. That all changed when she was opening the door for the prophet Elijah, but somehow she was brought to the year 1942, while there she relived what had happened to the Jews and felt all that pain and hurt she never knew. Can Hannah survive this, will she ever go back to her own time period?

The Devils Arithmetic author, Jane Yolen uses a lot of colorful words to bring the world of 1942 alive. As the story commences you're drawn in, noticing the realism of the charecters and the environment. To do this Jane Yolen has to use a libraby full of mataphors, similies, personifiction, and alliteration. When these ingredients are put together VOLA! A wonderful story is made leaving you to feel empty after the excelerating story comes to a sad and dramatic end.

The Devils Arithmetic is a great book. You'll love it if you are into suspenseful books with a little bit of mystery. This is a survival book that you will always remember. Jane Yolen will be sure to leave you hanging at the end of every chapter making you read more and more. This is a hard read and is recommended for children nine and up.

The Devil's Arithmetic was written by Jane, Yolen .This outstanding book was 170 pages and a Historical fiction novel. Here are a few books the author wrote before this one Armageddon Summer, Atalanta and the Areadian Beast, and Bag piper's Ghost. I thought the book was good because it explained things very well. It also puts a good mental picture in your head.

Hannah doesn't like to celebrate what happened in World WarII. So she goes back in time and goes on a journey to figure out why they celebrate this time. She comes across some problems that might lead her to her death. She learns about many things that happen. She figures out why her grandfather is so mean to her. If you want to know more about this story go to your local library or your schools.

This plot was enjoyable and detailed because it explained what happened in the gas chambers and in World WarII. The author did a great job with the plot because it went in the past and explained it very well. It also discribed what the Jewish had to go through.

The characters were believable and enjoyable read about. I was able to picture what people back then would look like that The author told you that many of the villagers were also farmers and that was the only way to get money. The author explained how they dressed. She also explained that the Nazis were more powerful than the Jews.

I thought this book was very well written . I also thought it was a good way to learn about World WarII. If you want to learn about the gas chambers ,World WarII, and Jewish culture you will like this book. I also liked it because it had many interest facts about the time frame. It also had a Jewish Book Award. I recommend you to read all of the way through because it gets better when you get further into the book

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The 21st century, the time of freedom, to 1942 the time of the Nazis. How did 12 year old Hannah Dreads get there? She was tired of remembering which was an important part of all Jewish holidays. It was Passover the same day as Easter she had just eaten at a friends house. She was full and she didn't want to go to her grandparents house to celebrate Passover. She is annoyed when her grandparents keep talking about the holocaust and when they were at a concentration camp. When she symbolically opens the door for the prophet Elijah she is transported back to a polish village in late 1942. Why is everyone calling her Chaya? Chaya is one of her aunt's friends from the concentration camp she was in when she was in little.

If you get nightmares from watching movies where people are treated like slaves and are brutally murdered and shot you should not read this book. I repeat do not. This is a story about life, death, misery and sorrow. We think that the author described the Holocaust very well and it showed the torment the Jews had to endure. "I'm tired of remembering." The lead was good because you wanted to know what she was tired of remembering. The tone of the book was very gloomy and it did not give much hope to the Jews about the Holocaust. The book was a historical fiction and told detail by detail what the Nazis did. The Devil's Arithmetic was similar to another good book Number The Stars. This book won the national Jewish book award. We think that this is one of the best books about the holocaust that you can find.

This is not just "another book on the Holocaust." A few years ago I had seen the movie "The Devil's Arithmetic," while I watched in incredulity and horror as the events unfolded. Now, as a high school teacher who studies Holocaust history and remembrance, it was time to read the book by Jane Yolen from which the movie was made.

Modern day Hannah Stern is once again bored to tears at the Passover seder, where her older relatives and grandparents reminisce about the times of the persecutions of the Jews, and the horrors of the camps during WWII. Suddenly Hannah is transported back in time to the shtetl (Jewish enclave)in Poland where these same relatives came from. Somehow she has become Chaya Abramowicz, is speaking yiddish,is the orphaned niece of the family, and is fully involved in that alternate reality. With some vague memories of the future and what is to come, we accompany Chaya as she is transported via cattlecar to a camp (which closely resembles Auschwicz)where life is lived one day at a time, one hour at a time, and finally one minute at a time (if you are alive for that day, that hour, that minute, you are still alive and there is hope for survival).

This moving novel is fast-paced and thought-provoking. For young readers and adults alike, it is a story of hope, survival, and remembrance. We must never forget the past, and it must never be allowed to happen again!

I thought this book to be extremely interesting. Though the subject matter is a bit strong, I found this book to be remarkably well-written. The book starts off in modern times, during the Seder meal of Hannah's family. Hannah is 13 and getting a little sick of "remembering" everything during Passover. She seems to feel almost as if she is "too good" to be participating in the Passover activities. During the time when someone was to open the door to invite "Elijah" in, Hannah was asked to do it. Knowing nothing would happen, she casually opened the door. Before she knew it, she was plunged into a different world- a past world. People were calling her "Chaya," and she was living with a woman claiming to be her aunt. Although completely confused, "Chaya" went along with most of the things going on. She was not mean- even friendly to a group of other girls who she quickly became friends with. While attending a wedding, though, she and everyone else were captured by the Nazis, and they went on a dangerous journey to the worst of World War II- a concentration camp. "Chaya" knew exactly what was going on, but no one would listen to her terrifying story. She actually went through the camp- lived through all the things she'd learned from school, while forgetting her normal, modern life. As she goes on, she begins forgetting her "old" life, and accepting being "Chaya." The big question is: Will Hannah ever remember her true life, or will she have to live through all of the horrors of the Holocaust? Find out in this book!

This compelling novel about life in a Nazi concentration camp is starkly authentic, told from the viewpoint of a modern Jewish teenage girl who is mysteriously transported back in time. As in other stories of time travel, she struggles to retain her American and contemporary identity, and ultimately her life, for she has taken the place of another girl in Europe during World War II. How is it that she can instantly speak and understand Yiddish? Why do these kindly villagers mistake her for someone else? How will she survive the horrors of the death camp, with its gas ovens and "Jew smoke?" Can she prove a person of value and integrity, keeping her human dignity even in the face of the Nazi dehumanization process? "If she does survive, Hannah knows she will never again have to ask why we must remember--for she herself will never forget."
This temporal shifting reminds me of two of my favorites, Charlotte Sometimes and The Victorian Chaise Longue, in which the heroines awaken in the past and are mistaken for someone else. If Hannah should succeed in returning to the future (i.e. her own time), will her hair be shorn and will her arm bear the accursed tattoo? A must-read for all thinking adults and feeling teens. Finally there is proper literary homage to those brave and nameless young people who lost their lives as victims of man's racial prejudice and senseless hate. The legacy of shame must be published abroad, so that it will not be repeated. Does your school teach the Holocaust?

I read The Devil's Arithmetic for an eighth grade summer reading list, thinking I wouldn't like it. I was wrong. The Devil's Arithmetic was a dramatic and powerful story.

The book begins with a young Jewish girl named Hannah having to go to a traditional Seder dinner at her grandparents. As she opens the door for the Jewish prophet Elijah, she gets transported back in time to the Holocaust. At first she thinks it's some elaborate joke, or perhaps a movie set. Just as she is beginning to realize that it is all real, the Nazis capture her. Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months, as she is tortured in the concentration camp. Finally, one day her friend gets chosen to go through the "Black Door". Hannah makes the ultimate sacrifice for her friend, and just as she is about to face death, she's back home.

You read the book so fast because you never want to put it down; you always want to see what is coming next. Jane Yolen does a wonderful job of depicting the realism in this book. That's what horrifies me the most about this book: the realism. Even though the characters are fictitious, the story is based on historical facts. The camps actually existed. The discrimination and treatment of the Jews are well known. So, don't think your going to read just a history book; this is a dramatic story of some of the worst times on earth. If you're looking for an excellent book to read, try The Devil's Arithmetic.

Jane Yolen has produced a terrifying and entirely engrossing book, dealing with very emotive and important issues in her usual seamless style. The facts of the Holocaust are so vast and overwhelming as to escape our ability to comprehend - we can understand the death of one friend and be devastated by it, but the death of thousands is nearly too huge to understand, and the death of millions is beyond us entirely. Yolen, by letting us see the events through the eyes of one narrator, Hannah/Chaya, has narrowed the focus to one single pair of eyes and allowed us to truly see. The results are devastating. Hannah, who starts out as a rather annoying teenager (how does Yolen do this? I know that kid!) who couldn't care less about the seder, learns what it is to love, to suffer, and to truly remember. I know this is billed as a Young Adult novel, but I'm 40 and I was entirely involved as I was reading, and wept bitterly at the end. It seems to me that Jane Yolen has done a great service to all those involved, and to those now alive who need to know how they lived, how they died - and how some survived through the boundless generosity of spirit shown by their fellow humans. This is a fictional work about a very real, very awful part of human history, and a fitting testament to those who retained their humanity in the midst of soul-wrenching horror. It is a wonderful book, poignant, moving, with enough depth to fully engage anyone.
Read this book.

Hannah has better things to do that spend the annual Seder listening to her grandparents go on about the Holocaust. However, when she is chosen to perform the ritual of opening the door to welcome the prophet Elijah, she is transported back to Poland in the 1940s. Everyone calls her Chaya and she begins to forget about her life as Hannah. It isn't long before Nazis take the small community to a concentration camp. While there, Chaya/Hannah becomes friends with Rivka, a 10-year-old girl who has lost everyone in her family except her brother. Rivka teaches Chaya and her friends the best ways to survive the horrors of the camp. However, no one is ever safe in the camps.

Writing about the Holocaust for children is especially difficult, given the disturbing subject matter and lack of reason. Yolen's book is able to portray the insanity of life in the concentration camps while also showing how survivors maintained their individuality. Hannah/Chaya's voice is wellwritten and, by having Hannah lose herself in Chaya's life, Yolen creates a sense of suspense. Readers will learn about the Holocaust from Hannah's experiences, but will also learn about the importance of remembrance.

I think the Devils Arithmetic was an excellent holocaust story. It was filled with some love , non- fiction horror, adventures, humor and history. It all starts when Hannah, who hates going to the family Seder (a Jewish holiday). She hates all the aunts and grandmas saying how much she's grown, (even when she hasn't) and the pinching of the cheeks. She hates her almost insane grandpa who despises Hitler, and screams at images of Nazis on the television, the constant boredom, and everything about the family Seder.

Then at the family dinner, when she is supposed to open the door for the prophet Elijah (whom she expected to see as much as Darth Vader, or Santa Claus) she is unknowingly transported into the past, 1941 to be exact, and lives the life of Chaya, a Jewish girl who lives with her relatives: Gilt, and her brother, Shmuel, who is getting married the next day.Every one at the wedding are taken by "Germans" to have their wedding "relocated", and only Hannah knows the unspeakable horrors that await.

This story mainly takes place in a concentration camp. This book gave me the goose bumps and truly was a thrilling novel. This story really shows the horror of the holocaust and is an exciting book. I highly recommend it to anyone.

"The Devil's Arithmetic" is about a young girl named Hannah who doesn't want to go to her family's Passover seder. While in the seder, she is aked to open a door for a tradition her family does. When she opens it she goes back in time to 1942 during her Aunt Eva's time when she is known as "Chaya", and is put into a concentration camp and realizes why passover is so important. My favorite part of the book was when Hannah was in the concentration camp. During this section of the book, Hannah meets new people, learns new rules and trys to survive her new living. During this part also, Hannah trys escaping ending up seeing her "brother" Yithzack get shot by the guards. I reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in historical events (especially world war 2). This book could be very hurtful to you if you believe strongly in Judaism because a lot of the nazis make fun of and yell at the Jewish people. This book also has a good moral representing that being with family and celebrations are important. This book is the type of book you cannot put down and it is very exciting. All in all, this book is very understanding and exciting.

Do you like interesting historical fiction? Well, if you do, The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, is for you. In this National Jewish Book Award story, Hannah, a 13-year old girl, is transported back to 1942. It all starts when Hannah opens the door for the prophet Elijah at her family's Passover seder. She soon finds herself back in the times of World War II. Knowing that Jews were put in concentration camps during that time, she is truly worried. She is afraid that if she is out in the open, she will be captured by the Nazis. Unfortunately, she is taken away to a concentration camp in a jam-packed boxcar with other Jews. She meets Gitl, Tzipporah, Esther, Shifre, Yente, Yitzchak, and Shmuel, and together they try to survive the terrible conditions. Fearing death from working so hard, lack of food, and whatever else might be ahead of them in this wretched place, they try to endure the suffering.
Only Hannah knows the results of being in these places; too bad no one believes her. The Devil's Arithmetic is based on the unfortunate true events of 1942. We highly recommend this book to anyone who likes sad stories with surprising endings.

This is for parents of school age kids, since many elementary schools are using this book to start the discussions on the Holocaust. The last half of the book takes place in a concentration camp and the author goes into detail. This is a good book, a very good book, and every person on this planet should read and be reminded about the horrible events in history that took place in Europe during World War II; but there is an appropriate age to learn about certain details.

Please note that Publisher's Weekly (under editorial reviews) says it's for ages 12 and up. But under product details the reading level stated is ages 9-12 (I think "reading level" means they can read it and comprehend it; it does not mean the material is appropriate).

Some schools send home advanced warnings that this book will be used; and let the parents opt out. If that's your case, it would be wise to take a copy from your library, and make your own decision.

"Who, who are those men in black suits blocking our wedding," Fayge exclaimed. Chaya yelled,"They're Nazis. Nazis! They will kill six million Jews! Don't you understand we have to run!" All the people including the Rabbi thought Chaya (Hannah) was crazy, but she knew it was just a matter of time until they soon found out the truth. Hannah, in the book The Devil's Arithmetic; is an ordinary girl living in the present day, but when she goes to her grandfather's house she has a strange experience. As she opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she looks foward and finds herself in another time zone. She looks back into the house and sees all of her family members with an elegant and delicious meal on the table. Curious about what was on the other side of the door, she steps out and realizes that she is in the time right before the Holocaust. She is no longer Hannah; she is Chaya, and she is about to embark on a terrifying journey to a concentration camp. The author of this book, Jane Yolen, shows that she has a great talent in writing books that deeply touch your emotions. The content of the book is a great source of history as well as a story filled with morals about life and the human race. Most of the book is written in the form of conversations. This kind of writing style helps the reader really understand the character's feelings and thoughts. In addition, Jane Yolen uses the triple period often, which ;eaves the reader's mind open as to what the character was going to say. Her writing is extremely desriptive, and the detail she includes makes it possible for the reader to imagine the setting. Overall, I think Jane Yolen is a great, and superb writer. I think The Devil's Arithmetic is definitely A Newberry Award winning book. It shows every aspect of being a perfect literary book, including moving content, accurate historical information, desripive vocabulary, and a plot that keeps your attention until the very end. Therefore, I would definitely recommend this book. If you want to know what happens to Chaya, you should read this book. Another reason you should absolutely read this book is because it gives the history of the Holocaust in a unique way. Most importantly it tells how Jews struggled from the best of times to the worst of times.

Twelve-year-old Hannah Stern was against going to her family's Passover Seder, but when she is somehow transported back through time as she opens the door to welcome the prophet of Elijah, she discovers the horrific past in 1942. On the wedding day of Shmuel and Fayge, Nazi solders come to take away all the Jews on the journey toward the Devil's camp. Hannah, who is known as "Chaya", encounters a friend named Rivka that helps her survive the Nazi's threatening ways. Danger surrounds the Jews every step that they take, but when three girls are to be chosen for processing, Hannah takes the place of Rivka and steps through the gate that leads to her death, so that Rivka may live. But will she get back to to the future just in time?
I loved this book! I really enjoyed the way the author transformed her research of the Holocaust into a novel that was a mystery. At the end of the book she took the information and tied it into a circle where all the ends met. It was a great mystery book and I would recommend it to anyone who is ready to shed the tears, and enjoy the happiness that is unraveled in this mystery.

Imagine if you were transported to a foreign village a long way from your family? How would you react? Would you be confused? Well read The Devils Arithmetic by Jane Yolan.
Hannah is a thirteen year old Jewish girl. She is very tired of going to celebrate the Passover Seder. Her relatives tell the same old boring stories over and over again. To celebrate the feast they have to open the door and pretend to welcome in the Prophet Elijah. But before her very own eyes she is transported to a Polish village far, far away from her family. It is the year 1942 and Hannah is very confused of why she is at this place and why the other children are calling her Chaya. Then once she starts to understand why she is there the town gets overun by Nazi solders. Hannah gets very frightened and then she gets even more confused. Hannah can tell that something horrible is going to happen to her and the other hostages.
I liked this book because it was easy to understand because it didn't jump back and forth. I would recommend this book to the ages between 9-13. I would rate this book 4 stars. I enjoyed reading this book.

The Devil's Arithmetic is about a teenage girl named Hannah. She was attending her familyl's Passover Seider. She had to open her grandparent's apartment door to let the prophet Elijah in. She beleived in Elijiah as much ad she beleive in the Easter Bunny or the tooth fairy, or Darth Vader. As she opened the door, she was instantly transported to a new world. She finally discovered that this world that she was in was really a Jewish town near Germany. All of the stories that her famly memebers mentioned were now comming alive! Then, one day, the Germans came and too the whole town off to a concentration camp. Hannah knew what was going to happen to her, or did she. Hannah forgot all about everything in her previous life. This was not good. She forgot what the Nazi's did to the Jewish people. She met some new friends at the camp. Some of Hannah's friends were unlucky. They were "chosen". Hannah never saw her beloved friends again. Hannah thought that she might be the next one. To find out if Hannah lives or does not, read this novel. You will be very surprised!

A 12 year old girl named Hannah witnessed a truly tragic and horrible crime with her own eyes. It all began like any other of the family's Passover Sedars. Hannah was tired of hearing the same old stories about the concentration camps and wished that everyone would just forget about the Holocaust. When she went to open the front door to welcome the Prophet Elijah, she traveled back in time to the year 1942 in a Polish village. Hannah didn't know where she was or why everyone was calling her Chaya. While hoping that she would be transported back to her home in New Rochelle, Nazi soldiers came and took the whole village away. No one wanted to listen to her about how horrible the camps were, but she still tried to convince them before it was too late. Although this account of the Holocaust didn't happen, the same events really did happen in the concentration camps. Since the Holocaust was the worst crime ever committed in the world, reading this novel made me realize how lucky I am to live in freedom.

Imagine being pulled into the past into a concentration camp in Poland, in 1942, with people dying and suffering all around you. Throughout the book, The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, the reader is captivated in suspense. This book is about a young girl named Hannah, who gets transported into the past. She finds herself in a Polish village, during World War II. The villagers get captured and sent to a barbaric place; a concentration camp. Hannah faces turmoil as she watches many people die. Hannah's name in the past is Chaya, Chaya means life.

Jane Yolen is skillful using suspense. She puts the reader in a position that they don't want to put the book down. Jane Yolen is also good at taking one picture and etching it into your mind. This book is good for anyone who is interested in World War II and the Nazis. Hannah needs to find out why she went back in time. Could it be for her to learn a lesson? Or a more important matter? You will find out if you read this book.

This is a well written book that helps understand life in concentration camps during world war 2. Parts of the book were hard to read, but important to remember what people went through during this part of history. Written from a preteen’s perspective, Jane Yolen captures youth well in how the main character is bored with her family’s stories until she gets transported back in time. It’s relatable to many young people who just live in the here and now and don’t realize what our ancestors did to get us where we are today.

This adventurous book is about a girl learning about her religion and all the horrifying moments her Jewish family members went through. Jane Yolen gives you dramatic details about every event that took place. {The setting is important and the author uses literary devices to make this an excellent suspense story for anyone who has wondered what happened during the holocaust.} The setting of this story is in a Polish town at a holocaust. As Hannah learns all the hardships that the Jews went through Yolen writes,"My mother said, before she died...that it is much harder to live this way than to go out in a shooting." This young girl must learn to live life the hard way. She must try to keep everyones spirits high while alson attempting to keep hers up as well. Literary devices are used to make this book seem more lively. She uses imagery which helps picture the setting in your head. Yolen writes," The rooms were cold and damp, and everyone shivered because there was no heat." Adding more detail to the events YOlen used majic 3," The bus smelled of sweat, pain, and fear." The information in this book makes it more easy to understand what life was like during the holocaust. With all the great detail you can alsmost picture everything in your head like you are living the book. It tells it in the life of a little girl and if you're a child this helps you understand it better. That is why i think that this is such a good book.

How would you feel being sucked back in the Holocaust ? If you think this is interestng, you should read this book. This book starts out at a Passover dinner(Jewish holiday). Hannah, the main characer, opens the door for Elijah and then BAM , she gets sucked back in to time. While she is back in the Holocaust she meets old family and she now realizes what"s going to happen, while everyone else dosen't.
In this book there are a few rescuers. These people helped other survive. One of the rescuers was Hannah. She helped people by...... Hannah had a good attitude even though she knew waht would happen. She also saved family and friends, by telling that they need to follow the rules. She was a rescuer because of her actions.
This is a very important book because the book takes you back in time and you could feel what it was like in the Holocaost. It is also important because it teaches you how a rescuers actgs and behaves. I recommend this book because it is well writen and gives you many historical facts while the time of the Holocaust. Last, its a very good mystery that you never want to stop reading.

The Devil's Arithmetic

By Jane Yolen

The book The Devil's Arithmetic is about a Jewish girl named Hannah who is going to her grandparents for the remembering of the holocaust on the Jewish holiday, The Passover. While Hannah is there she is asked to go and open the door for the prophet Elijah. Once Hannah opens the door she is no longer in her grandparents apartment! She is the 1940's around the holocaust! Hannah is frightened because she does not know where her family is! When Hannah trys to explain to people from where and what time she is from noone believes her! What will Hannah do now that she's in an unreal land where noone will understand her!

The opinion I have for this book The Devil's Arithmetic is that it's a very important book and a very well written book. This book is like mark of history for the holocaust, and it gave me a better perspective on what the holocaust was about.

By Amber Oxenreider 7-O

I chose this book for my favorite book because its an exciting adventure and its diffrent from the usual everyday books. The story is about a girl named Hannah questioning why the Holucast should be remembered. Her grandpa tells her this year she is allowed to go through a door and see a man. When she goes through she finds herself in the past at the time of the Holucast. She goes through the toture of the things people back then had to go through like eating old, rotten food everyday and being a slave to clean and work all day. She makes friends along the way but made a best friend named Rivika. When one day Hannah is caught not working she and Rivika are sent to the door were it is said to be a place were prisoners were sent to be burned. As Hannah walks throug the door she is back in her familys house. Later in the day she relizes something familiar about her aunt. She learns that Rivika was her aunt in the future.

Imagine if you were transported to a foreign village a long way from your family? How would you react? Would you be confused? Well read The Devils Arithmetic by Jane Yolan.
Hannah is a thirteen year old Jewish girl. She is very tired of going to celebrate the Passover Seder. Her relatives tell the same old boring stories over and over again. To celebrate the feast they have to open the door and pretend to welcome in the Prophet Elijah. But before her very own eyes she is transported to a Polish village far, far away from her family. It is the year 1942 and Hannah is very confused of why she is at this place and why the other children are calling her Chaya. Then once she starts to understand why she is there the town gets overun by Nazi solders. Hannah gets very frightened and then she gets even more confused. Hannah can tell that something horrible is going to happen to her and the other hostages.
I liked this book because it was easy to understand because it didn't jump back and forth. I would recommend this book to the ages between 9-13. I would rate this book 4 stars. I enjoyed reading this book.