Can’t Wait Wednesday #29: Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen

Posted September 20, 2017 by Lisa Mandina in / 34 Comments

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight
and talk about the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read.
Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on
Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.  This week I’ve picked a book that fits with my interest in reading books about the Holocaust, and it is by an author that wrote a classic YA book about that topic, The Devil’s Arithmetic.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:


From the legendary author of The Devil’s Arithmetic, Jane Yolen, comes her first Holocaust novel in nearly thirty years. Influenced by Dr. Mengele’s sadistic experimentations, this story follows twins as they travel from the Lodz ghetto, to the partisans in the forest, to a horrific concentration camp where they lose everything but each other.

The year is 1942, and Chaim and Gittel, Polish twins, are forced from their beautiful home and made to live in the Lodz Ghetto. Their family’s cramped quarters are awful, but when even those dire circumstances become too dangerous, their parents decide to make for the nearby Lagiewniki Forest, where partisan fighters are trying to shepherd Jews to freedom in Russia. The partisans take Chaim and Gittel, with promises that their parents will catch up — but soon, everything goes wrong. Their small band of fighters is caught and killed. Chaim, Gittel, and their two friends are left alive, only to be sent off to Sobanek concentration camp.

Chaim is quiet, a poet, and the twins often communicate through wordless exchanges of shared looks and their own invented sign language. But when they reach Sobanek, with its squalid conditions, rampant disease, and a building with a belching chimney that everyone is scared to so much as look at, the bond between Chaim and Gittel, once a source of strength, becomes a burden. For there is a doctor there looking to experiment on twins, and what he has in store for them is a horror they dare not imagine.

This gut-wrenching story about the choices we make, the values we hold — and the ties that bind us all together–adds a story never told before in young adult literature to the body of work written about teens during World War II.

Have you read The Devil’s Arithmetic?  Do you read many books on the Holocaust? What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

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34 responses to “Can’t Wait Wednesday #29: Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen

  1. I haven't read anything by this author before. I have read a couple of books about the Holocaust, but they're usually so heart-wrenching that I don't do it very often. Hope you enjoy this one! Have a great week!

    CWW
    Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know

    • The books about the Holocaust are almost always dark and sad, but for some reason I have to read them, no matter how much I end up crying every time. Thanks for stopping by!

  2. This is completely new to me! I admit, books featuring tragic historic events do not appeal to me because I am almost guaranteed to cry. 😀 It sounds like an amazing book though. I hope you enjoy it when you get the chance to read it!

    Have a wonderful week, Lisa. =)

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

  3. First of all, so sorry for the late comment back, Lisa! I have fallen behind in my commenting again…. 🙁 Trying to catch up!

    Anyway….this book is definitely not the sort of thing I can read, to be honest. I can't read any books on the Holocaust; they depress me too much. Not that I've ever had any relatives in concentration camps. (I was raised Catholic, although I suspect I do have Jewish ancestry.) It's just that I can't take these stories….they are much TOO horrible for me…. I tried reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" in high school, and couldn't finish it.

    I did want to comment back, though, because I firmly believe in returning the favor when someone comments on my own Wednesday post (and any other of my posts), even if I don't like the book picked by the blogger whose blog I'm commenting back on.

    I do hope you enjoy this book, Lisa!

    Thanks for commenting on my CWW post!! <3 <3 <3 🙂 🙂 🙂

    • I think I feel like reading these stories is important to me, to give those people a voice. It helps me when I feel like my life is bad to realize that I've got nothing to complain about. I don't know, that's just me though. I know what you mean about getting behind though! I feel like I'm always trying to get caught up on comments and such. Thanks for stopping by and returning the comment favor though!

  4. Sorry for my belated comment. Somehow this past week has been a crazy one. I don´t know the author and haven´t heart about this book yet, but the cover looks wonderful. Hope you´ll enjoy your pick.

    Here is my current WoW

    Best wishes
    Vi @Inkvotary

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