by Jane Yolen
Hannah dreads going to her family's Passover Seder—she's tired of hearing her relatives talk about the past. But when she opens the front door to symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah, she's transported to a Polish village in the year 1942. Why is she there, and who is this "Chaya" that everyone s...
Hannah is a bored preteen, tired of her Jewish family's traditions and her weird grandfather's outbursts. On the night of Passover Seder, she opens the door to greet the profit Elijah, but instead enters the past. Now she finds herself in the train being shipped to the camps for processing, were eve...
Hannah, Jewish and living in New York, is bored with Passover, having to go to the Seder and taking part in the rituals, listening to the boring stories of her relatives while her friends enjoy Easter is just not something she wants to do. But she does. When she opens the door to let Elija in, she...
I think it's very challenging to create a middle-reader Holocaust story that isn't either "too much, too conflicting, it hurts!" or a little old hat--though to be fair, if you go through years of Hebrew school (as I did) you'll get a lot more Holocaust story exposure than most of Yolen's potential a...
Really cool story.
This book left me emotionally drained. From the moment Hannah opened the door and discovered a different world and I knew what was going to happen, I was filled with dread. The events themselves weren't so shocking, as I have learned about horror of the Holocaust, but the way in which it was presen...
This semester I am requiring my students to read The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, a novel takes place in Poland during World War II. The good news is that my students love the book; in fact, several of them are reading ahead. The shocking fact, the bad news, is what they don’t know. It is not ...
Enjoyable? Not so much. But very powerful storytelling nonetheless. The experience of watching modern day Jewish American Hannah become a 1940s era Polish Jew named Chaya Abramobichz is not one easily forgotten. By using time travel to tell this story Yolen effectively bridges the gap between pa...
I wasn't really sure what to make of this book when I first saw it, but after having read it, I would say that I am glad that I did. This is one of those books that really makes you look at things from a different perspective. I can relate to Hannah, because I remember being 13 and having little pat...
Just reread this book. Hannah is a typical twentieth century girl when she is abruptly swept back into the past--back to Poland, 1942. Hannah's personality, and those of the relatives and friends she makes in the camp, are as vivid as reality. The story itself is a powerful reminder of the import...
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