The Devil's Arithmetic

Although this book may not be historically accurate and may be simplistic in nature, I think that it achieves what the author desired to do. Jane Yolen allows the reader to experience what things may have been like for young Jewish people and emphasizes the struggles and horrific experiences that happened during the Holocaust. This is a great way for children to grasp the concepts and learn more about these moments of history, without being too tragic and graphic. Great read!

Quotes:
“Not to act,' Immanuel Ringelbloom, a Jewish historian of the holocaust, has written, ‘not to lift a hand against the Germans had become the quiet, passive heroism of the common Jew. 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.” - Jane Yolen, author's note

“Fiction cannot recite the numbing numbers, but it can be that witness, that memory. A storyteller can attempt to tell the human tale, can make a galaxy out of the chaos, can point to the fact that some people survived, even as most people died. And can remind us that the swallows still sing around the smokestacks.” -Jane Yolen, author's note