She tells them stories from popular culture and impresses them with her worldly knowledge. The wedding party is lively, and Hannah is a hit with the girls from the village. Yitzchak, a butcher, wants to marry Gitl, but she doesn’t want to look after his young children, Tzipporah and Reuven. Shmuel is about to marry Fayge, the daughter of Rabbi Boruch. Hannah was living in Lublin, a city in Poland, but now lives in a tiny Jewish village with Gitl and Shmuel.

In this new timeline, Hannah’s parents died of cholera. Gitl and Shmuel, her aunt and uncle, call her Chaya-Hannah’s Hebrew name. She travels back in time to 1942 Poland, and can somehow speak and understand Yiddish. Will says she should open the apartment door to see if Elijah, a prophet who represents hope, is outside. She wishes she could eat jelly beans like Rosemary. She doesn’t want to be here, and she doesn’t like the food.

Hannah remembers when she drew a number on her arm, and Will became very angry.ĭuring the Seder, Hannah can’t suppress her suffering. Will has a number tattoo on his arm from the Holocaust. Hannah doesn’t understand why the Holocaust continues to upset Will-it’s in the past. Will screams at a Holocaust program on TV. Eva lives with her brother Grandpa Will and his wife. Hannah’s name comes from one of Eva’s dead friends.

Eva is Hannah’s favorite aunt, even though, as Hannah grows older, her magic dwindles. On the drive there, Hannah tells Aaron she’ll help him with the Four Questions, which are recited at the Seder by the youngest child to encourage inquiry, and tells him the plot of a zombie movie she watched on TV.Īt the Seder, Aunt Eva kisses Hannah on the forehead. The Seder is at her grandma and grandpa’s apartment in the Bronx-a borough of New York City. Hannah lives with her mom, dad, and little brother, Aaron in a big house in New Rochelle-a city in New York State. Her mom reminds her that the Nazis killed many of her grandparents’ family in the Holocaust, and Hannah admits that she remembers. Her mom says Passover is about much more than food: It has to do with remembering. Her mom picks her up from the house of her best friend Rosemary, where Hannah ate a big dinner and Easter candy. Hannah Stern is almost 13 years old, and she doesn’t want to go to a Passover Seder with her family. The page numbers refer to a 1990 Puffin Books eBook version of The Devil’s Arithmetic.Ĭontent Warning: This study guide contains traumatic violence and situations related to the Holocaust. Many schools continue to teach Yolen’s story, as it tackles pertinent themes like memory, hope, identity, privilege, and suffering. The Devil’s Arithmetic won the National Jewish Book Award for children’s literature, and in 1999, it became a movie starring Kirsten Dunst and Brittany Murphy. Yolen has published hundreds of books and won several awards.

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen