the devils arithmetic/what did t he badchan remind hannah of in the book?

Answer 1

I think this was assignment given by the teacher.

The badchan says, "The snake smiles, but he shows no teeth"
Most of what he says are not true though.
Read chapters 9-11.

The Devil's Arithmetic
by Jane Yolen

Summary by a reviewer:
Grade 4-8 In this novel, Yolen attempts to answer those who question why the Holocaust should be remembered. Hannah, 12, is tired of remembering, and is embarrassed by her grandfather, who rants and raves at the mention of the Nazis. Her mother's explanations of how her grandparents and great-aunt lost all family and friends during that time have little effect. Then, during a Passover Seder, Hannah is chosen to open the door to welcome the prophet Elijah. As she does so, she is transported to a village in Poland in the 1940s, where everyone thinks that she is Chaya, who has just recovered from a serious illness. She is captured by the Nazis and taken to a death camp, where she is befriended by a young girl named Rivka, who teaches her how to fight the dehumanizing processes of the camp and hold onto her identity. When at last their luck runs out and Rivka is chosen, Hannah/Chaya, in an almost impulsive act of self-sacrifice, goes in her stead. As the door to the gas chamber closes behind her, she is returned to the door of her grandparents' apartment, waiting for Elijah. Through Hannah, with her memories of the present and the past, Yolen does a fine job of illustrating the importance of remembering. She adds much to children's understanding of the effects of the Holocaust, which will reverberate throughout history, today and tomorrow.
**
Hannah dreads going to her family's Passover Seder. Her relatives always tell the same stories, and Hannah's tired of hearing them talk about the past. But when she opens the front door to symbolically welcome the prophet Elijah, she's transported to a Polish village -- and the year 1942. Why is she there, and who is this "Chaya" that everyone seems to think she is? Just as she begins to unravel the mystery, Nazi soldiers come to take everyone in the village away. And only Hannah knows the unspeakable horrors that await.

from the author:

I had thought about doing a book on the Holocaust for a long time, but quite frankly the idea overwhelmed me. Finally one of my editors, who was a rabbi's wife at the time, persuaded me to confront the task. Writers and storytellers are the memory of a civilization, and we who are alive now really must not forget what happened in that awful time or else we may be doomed to repeat it. This book is about a Jewish teenager who--much like me at that age--hated the idea of having to remember so much Jewish history and ritual. At a family seder, she opens the door to Elijah and finds herself whirled back in time to a Polish Jewish shtetl in the 1940s. There, though she alone understands what will happen to the villagers, she is taken with them to a concentration camp. This is a story of the quiet heroism in the camps and why we must bear witness to history. There is a German/Austrian edition of the book. It won the Sydney Taylor Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries, the Jewish Book Council Award, the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award, and was a Nebula Honor Book. It was also on the 1992 Kentucky Bluegrass Master List, a Florida Children's Book Award nomination in '91-92 for grades 6-8, and was on the 1994 Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award master list.

Get more links here:
http://www.janeyolen.com/blurbs/devilsa2.html



Good luck.