The Devil's Arithmetic, Jane Yolen

The book tells the story of Hannah, a young Jewish girl in modern America. Hannah is a teenager, and she serves as our narrator throughout the novel. Hannah is a “typical” teenage girl, and she is preoccupied with clothing and social activities more than she is interested in her family's heritage and religion. When the story opens our first experience with Hannah is her ambivalence towards the Jewish holiday that she is celebrating with her family, and this ultimately makes it very difficult to like her at the beginning of the book.


However, this changes when a major shift in the plot occurs. During the holiday meal, Hannah is chosen to symbolically welcome the Prophet Elijah by opening the door to the apartment where she and her family are celebrating. This action somehow transports her back to Poland in 1942, where World War II is in full swing and every Jew is persecuted. Hannah is put into the body of 13-year-old Chaya Abramowicz, and before she even has a grasp on what is happening and where she is, she and her “uncle” and “aunt” are on a train to a concentration camp.

Here is an excerpt from this moment in the book:

“The men down there, she cried out desperately, "They're not wedding guests. They're Nazis. Nazis! Do you understand? They kill people. They killed--kill--will kill Jews. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Six million of them! I know. Don't ask me how I know, I just do. We have to turn the wagons around. We have to run!"

This moment shows Hannah/Chaya's confusion and ignorance in the situation, and it becomes evident to both the reader and to Hannah herself that she needs to develop some grasp of what is happening around her. She has to rely on her limited knowledge of her people's history and put trust in strangers in order to survive the persecution of the Nazis.

Some of the themes present in this novel are kindness towards strangers, trusting your instincts, the importance of family and heritage, and the strength and resilience of the human spirit. The end of the book provides a final plot twist that makes the book well worth reading overall. If you like this book, you might also like Night by Elie Wiesel or Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.