Search This Blog








2023 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama (1)
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California (1)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York (2)
- North Carolina (1)
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia
- Washington (1)
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
- Washington, D.C.*
International:
- Australia (1)
- Ireland (1)





2023 Build Your Library Reading Challenge







Friday, October 17, 2014
Vivid Technicolor Details Bring Understanding of Jewish Girl's Plight in Yolen's Holocaust Classic
9:35 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Hannah Stern isn't looking forward to another boring Passover Seder with her extended family. The 12-year-old would prefer to skip it all—the lipstick-laced kisses from Aunt Eva; the senile ravings of her grandfather; the endless droning about Egypt and plagues and the children of Israel. The traditions force them all to remember the past and Hannah is so tired of hearing about things that happened so long ago they hardly matter in the present.
Opening the door of one's home to symbolically let the prophet Elijah inside is a silly tradition only babies believe in. When Hannah reluctantly receives the honor of performing the task, she certainly doesn't expect anything unusual to happen. But it does. As she steps through the door, her family's modern New York apartment disappears. Hannah finds herself in a village she doesn't recognize with people she doesn't know. Everyone calls her "Chaya" and acts like there's nothing strange about her being trapped in a Polish village in 1942. They laugh when she speaks of magical doors, but Hannah doesn't find her predicament funny at all. She's studied the Holocaust in school, she's heard her family's terrible concentration camp stories, she knows what's going to happen to the Polish Jews. As Hannah experiences all the confusion, all the injustice, all the fear her ancestors felt during World War II, she begins to understand why her parents insist on remembering their heartbreaking plight.
Can Hannah use her knowledge from the future to save her ancestors from their devastating fate? Can she stop the horrors of the Holocaust from happening at all, at least to the people whose blood she will someday share? And, most importantly, can she find her way home to Hannah Stern's nice, safe life in present-day New York? Or will she die as Chaya, another victim of senseless Nazi brutality?
I've heard parents say that The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen is too violent, too vivid, for young readers. And, yet, it's one of the most compelling children's books I've read about the Holocaust. Why? Because it comes to such brilliant life with all its rich, Technicolor details. As you read, it's impossible not to feel as if you're walking in Chaya's clunky black shoes. Just as it did for Hannah, the modern world falls away, giving you a little bit of an understanding for what a young Polish Jew might have seen, heard and felt as her gentle world crumbled into a ghastly, irrevocable nightmare. This small book may, at times, be difficult to digest, but, trust me, the understanding that comes from it is worth every hard swallow. Everyone, children included, should read this touching classic.
(Readalikes: Reminds me of other books about the Holocaust/concentration camps written for children/teens, including The Diary of Anne Frank, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys)
Grade:
Opening the door of one's home to symbolically let the prophet Elijah inside is a silly tradition only babies believe in. When Hannah reluctantly receives the honor of performing the task, she certainly doesn't expect anything unusual to happen. But it does. As she steps through the door, her family's modern New York apartment disappears. Hannah finds herself in a village she doesn't recognize with people she doesn't know. Everyone calls her "Chaya" and acts like there's nothing strange about her being trapped in a Polish village in 1942. They laugh when she speaks of magical doors, but Hannah doesn't find her predicament funny at all. She's studied the Holocaust in school, she's heard her family's terrible concentration camp stories, she knows what's going to happen to the Polish Jews. As Hannah experiences all the confusion, all the injustice, all the fear her ancestors felt during World War II, she begins to understand why her parents insist on remembering their heartbreaking plight.
Can Hannah use her knowledge from the future to save her ancestors from their devastating fate? Can she stop the horrors of the Holocaust from happening at all, at least to the people whose blood she will someday share? And, most importantly, can she find her way home to Hannah Stern's nice, safe life in present-day New York? Or will she die as Chaya, another victim of senseless Nazi brutality?
I've heard parents say that The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen is too violent, too vivid, for young readers. And, yet, it's one of the most compelling children's books I've read about the Holocaust. Why? Because it comes to such brilliant life with all its rich, Technicolor details. As you read, it's impossible not to feel as if you're walking in Chaya's clunky black shoes. Just as it did for Hannah, the modern world falls away, giving you a little bit of an understanding for what a young Polish Jew might have seen, heard and felt as her gentle world crumbled into a ghastly, irrevocable nightmare. This small book may, at times, be difficult to digest, but, trust me, the understanding that comes from it is worth every hard swallow. Everyone, children included, should read this touching classic.
(Readalikes: Reminds me of other books about the Holocaust/concentration camps written for children/teens, including The Diary of Anne Frank, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for brief, mild language (no F-bombs); violence; intense scenes; and sexual innuendo
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)




Reading
All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

Listening
The War Librarian by Addison Armstrong



Followin' with Bloglovin'



-
-
-
-
-
-
-
All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker11 hours ago
-
Growing Strong13 hours ago
-
-
A Novel Disguise by Samantha Larsen14 hours ago
-
Book’d Out [January 2023]15 hours ago
-
-
Gillard, Joe "The Little Book of Lost Words"17 hours ago
-
-
-
#AmReading19 hours ago
-
The Witch And The Vampire21 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
The Flatshare1 day ago
-
-
Sunday Salon1 day ago
-
-
-
Sunday Post #4893 days ago
-
-
-
-
Review of Matilda4 days ago
-
-
-
-
Just finished and currently reading.6 days ago
-
-
-
My Bookish Goals for 20231 week ago
-
Top Ten Books of 20222 weeks ago
-
Books Read in 20233 weeks ago
-
December Monthly Wrap-up3 weeks ago
-
-
-
Thinking Out Loud: Our Wives Under the Sea2 months ago
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?3 months ago
-
-
HEARTS OF BRIARWALL by Krista Jensen5 months ago
-
-
-
-

Grab my Button!



Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ► 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ► 2016 (157)
- ► 2015 (188)
- ▼ 2014 (133)