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The Devil's Arithmetic (Puffin Modern Classics) Review
User Submitted The Devil's Arithmetic (Puffin Modern Classics) ReviewsNovember 26, 2008 The Great Book Hi, I just read this book and thought it should get 4 stars. There were a lot of mysterious events. The mysterious events were like when Hannah got transported into the past. It is an incredible book. This Jewish tale tells the horrifying tale of the Nazis. November 9, 2008 Not Just another Holocaust Story 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! September 22, 2008 Excellent book. I have been trying for YEARS to remember the name of this book, and have failed only because I could only remember the plot and the book cover, but not the title. I read this book in the fifth grade. It was sitting on my teacher's bookshelf collecting dust, but the picture on the front of the ghostly girl and her bald counterpart haunted me. I asked to borrow it. I read it in two days (I was ten at the time) and the story has stuck with me for nearly ten years. I'm so relieved and excited to find this book and will definitely be adding it to my collection ASAP. This should definitely be required reading for all age groups. It has such a powerful message. August 11, 2008 Great book goes well with the DVD movie, The Devil's Arithmetic (Puffin Modern Classics) The book is very easy to read, goes pretty well with the DVD movie. I used this book The Devil's Arithmetic, DVD movie, and the downloaded study guide in my English high school and middle school classes in my World War II Holocaust unit with: Night by Elie Wiesel, and Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death Excellent resource for students to get a personal connection to World War II via the main character Hanna who is an high school teen ager who travels back to Poland and experiences the death camp. July 13, 2008 Excellent book!!!! This book gives the reader a very brief view of history and how the evils of this world has a domino effect on us all. It also reminds us that we [humans] can survive in the worst of times with the help of family and friends. It is well written and gives you a good mental image of what you are reading. June 16, 2008 If It's Not Required Reading, It Should Be ... The Devil's Arithmetic is a remarkable book about a horrid event in our history. For naysayers, it provides a mountain of evidence that must be heralded. For the rest of us, it is a reminder that we must in fact remember the atrocities of the Holocaust so that they are not repeated. Yolen weaves together the tales of Hannah/Chaya in this historically fictional book. Hannah, a modern-day teenager, is 'tired of remembering'. Her family's rituals at Passover bore her and like any typical teen, would rather hang out with friends. That is, until she is chosen during the ritual, to open the door to Elijah the Prophet. When she does, she steps back in time and morphs into Chaya, a young girl who eventually is sent to one of the dreaded concentration camps. While Hannah/Chaya stuggles with the reconciliation of what she knows from the future and what she is living in 1942, the horrors of the Holocaust and Hitler's Final Solution surround her. If this is not required reading at your school, it most certainly should be. I know I will be recommending it to my students when we return to school in August. April 9, 2008 Courtesy of Teens Read Too 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 March 21, 2008 The Devil's Arithmetic 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. January 5, 2008 Brilliantly written I absolutely could not put this down. I highly recommend it for young readers who are wondering about this event in our history. December 22, 2007 Wow... I used this as a literature circle book for my 6th graders. You could have heard a pin drop whenever it was read silently, and students had a hard time not reading ahead when they needed to stop. It is a traumatic story, but one that needs to be told. It brought up a wealth of questions from students. The Holocaust is a difficult subject, no matter how it is told. As a parent, I will have my children read it, but with guidance so I am there to answer their questions about this horrible event in history. Jane Yolen is truly amazing. For more The Devil's Arithmetic (Puffin Modern Classics) reviews click here.
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