Summary

The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, is a novel about a contemporary American Jewish girl named Hannah who is magically transported to the time of World War II, where she is part of a family sent to a German concentration camp. The family calls the girl by her Hebrew name, Chaya. She has no idea how she got there, and as the horrible, fear-filled days in the concentration camp go by, the girl increasingly cannot remember her original home or family.

In Chapter 1, Hannah is at her home in New Rochelle, New York, on the Jewish holiday of Passover, which happens to fall this year on Easter Sunday. Hannah does not want to go that evening to the first Seder, a ritual feast of Passover, which will be held at the home of her Grandpa Will and Grandma Belle. She complains to her mother that...