The Devil is in the Details

The Devil’s Arethmetic

by Jane Yolen

Summary

As they drive to her grandparent’s house for a Passover Seder, 12-year-old Hannah tells her mother that she’s tired of remembering. Every year she hears the same stories and witnesses the same traditions being upheld, and she’s bored. She goes through the motions of the Seder, observing her younger brother and relatives. However, when she opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she looks outside and suddenly finds herself in the Poland of 1942. A woman is calling her by her Hebrew name of Chaya (meaning “life”), and she tries to figure out what is real - the life she remembers, or the one she is living in. As she begins to take part in the life of the villagers around her, Nazi soldiers arrive, and Hannah suddenly realizes that she is about to experience the Holocaust in ways she could never imagine.

Worth staying up past bedtime?

Yolen’s story is fascinatingly heart-wrenching, and I could not put it down. By placing young Hannah in the middle of the history that she claimed to be “tired” of remembering, Yolen gives readers a new perspective on the horrors that countless Jewish people endured during the Holocaust. The story is full of sadness, but more than that, it depicts the amazing spirit that lived within the camp prisoners. As young Hannah learns, heroism is measured differently in the camps, and I mulled this book over for several hours after I finished reading it.

Reviews

“A triumphantly moving book.” - Kirkus Reviews, pointer review

“Yolen attempts to answer those who question why the Holocaust should be remembered ... Through Hannah, with her memories of the present and the past, Yolen does a fine job of illustrating the importance of remembering. She adds much to children's understanding of the effects of the Holocaust, which will reverberate throughout history, today and tomorrow.” - Susan M. Harding, School Library Journal

In the library

This would be a great book to include in a history class or lesson about the Holocaust. After reading the book, have students interview a family member about something they experienced or learned about from their ancestors that is important to remember.

For a library project, talk about why it’s important to remember what our families and the people who came before us did. Make a “family tree” out of butcher paper and have children write something they want to remember about their family on pieces of paper (or “leaves”) and affix them to the tree.

SLIS 5420

Module 10, Nov. 2-7