The Devil’s Arithmetic is a novel written by Jane Yolen. It begins with Hannah Stern, a 12 year old Jewish girl from current day New Rochelle, celebrating Passover with her relatives. Suddenly, Hannah is transported to 1941, where she is mistaken for a girl named Chaya. Hannah and the other Jewish people in her village are then tricked into going to a Nazi concentration camp. Hannah and her new friends go through all kinds of torture and eventually can’t take it anymore. They decide to break out of the concentration camp. When the plan goes horribly wrong, Hannah decides to sacrifice herself for a friend. After this incident, Hannah ends up back in New Rochelle. She now understands the joy of spending time with family and realizes that traditions are not boring.
I would rate this book a four out of five because there is an interesting time travel idea. The thing that I did not like about this book is that it took a lot of time for it to get interesting. I would recommend reading this book because of what you can learn from it. I also like this book because it has some plot twists and is not very predictable.