The Devil's Arithmetic

Hannah is a bored teen, tired of hearing her grandfather's stories about the Holocaust, annoyed that she must attend her family's Passover Seder. She finds, suddenly, that she has been transported back to 1941 Poland, where she is sent to a concentration camp.

The details of the travel to the camp as well as her time in the camp are vivid and shocking to Hannah, and, consequently, to us as readers. People die as a result of the conditions, and some are put to death right in front of Hannah. The food is meager and the guards are brutal. All of this is in sharp contrast to Hannah's modern life, and, again, we as readers are able to experience the horrors of that time just as Hannah is experiencing it.

There are a few references to Hannah's modern life that might be unfamiliar to contemporary readers, but these can be easily explained. I found it to be a very powerful story. We must not forget.

A 1001 Children's Book.