The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

This is a wonderful book to have middle school students read when studying the Holocaust. I had the chance to watch the movie in eighth grade when my class studied the Holocaust. I also learned that a teacher at Oakland shows the movie following the class reading of Maus: A Survivor's Tale. The book provides a more in-depth look at Jewish customs, religious practices, and the Yiddish language than the movie. This story also integrates modern with the past by having the main character from the 20th century experience the horrors of the Holocaust in the 1940s. Essentially as teachers, we want the students to have that similar type of experience so they can understand the Holocaust and I feel that this text is able to provide that.

Summary Courtesy of http://www.shvoong.com/books/259906-devil-arithmetic/

The Devil's Arithmetic is a heartbreaking story about the Holocaust that really helps you relate to the horror that the Jewish people and many others went through at that awful time. It is about a Jewish girl named Hannah that cannot appreciate her religion and the life she has. She finds herself back in the 1940's after she opens a door to the past, her and her relatives enduring the torture of the Nazis. Aristotle once said, "Evil draws men together." In the Holocaust, as the Nazi's cruelty pulled the Germans and Jews apart, it drew the Jewish people together. The Devil's Arithmetic is factual and emotionally wrenching as it shows you how things worked in death camps. Hannah, the main character, is in denial in the beginning, but starts to get lost in her new self and lose her old memory as well. She is wise beyond her years, an old wisewoman trapped in a young girl's body. Hannah becomes selfless, and then makes the largest sacrifice possible for a young girl she hardly knows.

Yolen, Jane. (1990). Devil’s Arithmetic. New York: Puffin Books. 176 pp. ISBN: 0-14-034535-3.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I feel that if my goal as a teacher was to get my students to love reading, this is the book I would start them off with. The book is a captivating, edge-of-your-seat read that I feel would draw in all different types of students. It also gives students a view of different socioeconomic classes coexisting in the classroom and in life, both real situations that they could or are experiencing in their personal lives.

Summary courtesy of http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2310/When-You-Reach-Me

By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it's safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner. But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda's mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper: 
           I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
           I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she's too late.

Stead, Rebecca. (2009). When You Reach Me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. 197 pp. ISBN: 978-0-385-73742-5.