The Devil's Arithmetic
by Jane Yolen

    THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC by Jane Yolen
    Category:  Historical
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  4/12/04
    Publisher:  Puffin
    Reviewed by:  Cana Rensberger
    Rating:  5 Stars


    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.