From: maggie_bo_at_comcast.net
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:38:27 +0000 (UTC)

Grace Oliff writes, regarding Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic:

"There is no suggestion that this was "all a dream"- in the tradition of ti me travel fantasy, she has actually made this journey, actually experienced this- and she returns to the present having experienced the necessary epip hany. Of course people did not wake up from the Nazi experience- but this b ook was about trying to explain that experience to a generation that thankf ully did not have to live through it, and was often confused by the fact th at those who had were reluctant to speak."

I agree. I don't think Hannah/Chaya's experience comes off as a dream at al l--it is a time travel experience, and the message of the book is the impor tance of remembering. There is no sense of unreality--in fact, the whole po int of the novel is to show that the holocaust was real, did happen, and sh ould not be forgotten, and I believe it does that as effectively as any hol ocaust novel for children. In addition, Yolen's book is a departure from th e many holocaust novels written from the point of view of Christians saving Jews. For that reason too, it is a particularly noteworthy and important b ook, and one I highly recommend to my middle school students.

Maggie Bokelman Librarian Eagle View Middle School Mechanicsburg, PA


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Received on Sat 19 Nov 2011 01:38:27 PM CST