| Booktalk
#1
In THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC young
Hannah is not interested in going to the seder. To her, all Jewish holidays
are about remembering and she is tired of remembering. Her grandfather
had been in the concentration camps, and her grandmother lost all but her
brother to the camps. Hannah is embarrassed by Grandpa's outbursts and
would have preferred to share in her friend's Easter Festivities. But,
at the seder, as Hannah opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she is swept
back in time to a Polish village in 1942. With her knowledge as Hannah
intact, she must live what is to come.
Chaya (Hannah) is in a small
village, able to understand the Yiddish spoken around her, but remembering
also her life as Hannah. As they leave for her uncle's wedding, the simplicity
and poverty of shtetel life is portrayed. When they arrive at Viosk, they
are met by the Nazi's. Here they begin their journey into the reality of
the time, from the trucks to the boxcars to the concentration camps. Through
the experiences which Chaya (Hannah) faces, we see the brutal arithmetic.
"As long as we breath, we can see and hear. As long as we can remember,
all those gone before are alive inside us." And Chaya finds that she can
die to save her forebearers.
(Barbara
Goldenhersh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Harris Stowe State College,
St. Louis, MO)
Booktalk #2
In this book, Hannah and her
family travel to visit more of her family for Passover (they're Jewish).
She and her brother Aaron are the only children in her family. In the first
chapter, it talks about her family and past things she'd done with them.
She expresses real feeling when she talks about the time she wrote a number
with blue pen to have the same one as her grandfather. He yelled at her
for not understanding, and boy was he mad. Later on it talks about her
opening the door for Elijah, but when she looked out what she saw was an
old dirt road and chickens. She looked back and saw an old fashioned kitchen
with a old kettle stove, and old things you wouldn't see today(unless it's
in a museum) She meets Shmuel and Gitl, and they keep calling her by her
Jewish name, Chaya, which means life. The name becomes quite ironic when
on the day of Shuel's wedding her and about 50 more people are kidnapped
and forced onto an old pickup truck. The trip is to a camp for Jews to
be kept as slaves. The trip is long and hard and several young children
die. They arrive at the camp to meet several others that have been taken
also. They must have their hair shaved off, possessions taken, and...have
a number burned onto their arms. Throughout the story she meets several
people, like Rivka. Rivka was actually too young to stay, but she looked
the part. Her brother was one of the chosen Jews to take others to the
cave where they are burned to ashes. Speaking of too young, the younger
children must run and hide in the dumps when the Commando comes. They must
strip of all clothing and hide until he leaves. Everyone, including the
keepers, knows about this. They just let them hide for the fun of watching
them scatter in fear. On one occasion, Chaya(Hannah) has to save a young
infant who was to slow. Stripping of her clothes, she covers the child
and waits in fear. Chaya, Rivka, and two other girls are given the duty
to clean and cook the meals. They take advantage of this and give themselves
extra helpings, even as little as that is. One time they are caught, Rivkas
own brother too, and just for the heck of it he picks two of them to be
burned. He doesn't pick Chaya, but he winks at her as if he had a reason.
Before they are taken, Chaya helps Rivka escape, saying,"They will not
know the difference betweeen one Jew or another. Nor will they care who
dies". So she takes Rivka's place and dies in the fire. Suddenly Hannah
is back home. Her aunt's, uncle's, and other family look at her wondering
if Elijah is coming. She closes the door. Later on that night, one of her
aunt's explains the meaning of her Jewish name. She says that Chaya means
life, which was her best friends name, the name of the one who sacreficed
her self for her to live. She shows the number on her arm to Hannah. Hannah
explains the number. And that is the end. (Tracy Roope, smarter_sport101@yahoo.com,
HCMS Library)
Booktalk #3
When you have been opening
a door to a hallway or outside have you ever opened it to a small farmhouse
in Poland, in the year 1942? Well thirteen year old, Hannah does open that
door. Hannah is a normal teenager like you and me. She likes to hang out
with her friends and go to the movies. She is also lazy towards her Jewish
religion. She needs to be more unselfish in her mom’s eyes.
It all began before a family get together for a Jewish holiday at her Aunt’s
apartment in the city of New Rochelle. She tells her mom that she is tired
of remembering. Her mom makes her go to the dinner anyway. At the dinner
she is asked to go open the door for Elijah to come in. Hannah goes because
it can’t harm anyone and is just a dumb tradition. When she opens the door
she opens it to a different house in 1942, instead of an apartment hallway.
Out the window she can see farm crops and trees to the distance. She finds
out that this family is Jewish base family and calls her Chiay. Then she
sees that they already know her. When she tries to tell the family she
is from New Rochelle they just laugh and joke at her. So she gives up on
convincing them. The family is getting ready for a wedding she finds out
later. When they try and go to the wedding they are stopped by German soldiers.
They say they must be moved to another place because of World War II. So
they agree and get into their trucks. Then after the truck ride they have
to get on a train. They end up in a Nazi concentration camp.
Nate and I both agree it is an historical fiction book. We also agree the
author does a very good job on getting the historical facts right. The
author does a very good job of describing the difficulty the concentration
inmates go through. This book is real as it can be about the holocaust
events from how the Nazis tricked the Jews to the deaths of many in the
camps. So in conclusion both Nate and I recommend this book to anyone who
is looking for a solid historical fiction book.
So do you think Hannah will successfully make it back to New Rochelle learning
a life lesson or die, and not learn anything from concentration camp experience.
This is a big load on Hannah’s shoulders, to find out if she gets back
to New Rochelle read this awesome book, The Devils Arithmetic. This book
is truly an award winner. (Kyle Poisson) |
