Mapping the Bones

by Jane Yolen

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.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Holocaust, World War II, Fiction, War

421 pages, Hardcover

First published March 6, 2018

About the author

Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book, but not an easy one. Just remember, when you're blinking back tears in parts--this is "Hansel and Gretel". Gretel will always shove the witch into the oven.

[Kalena ୨୧ · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/5 stars, this book was phenomenal.

I had a theory about this book that ultimately didn't come to happen and I am so happy. This book still had a great ending though.

I love how this book was loosely based on Hansel & Gretel but still was in WWll. If you didn't look closely, or even didn't read in between the lines, you would miss the references to Hansel & Gretel. This book was still based upon and in WWll so it was a nice idea.

Then this book has characters who are believable, go through believable things, and have believable concerns. We never really get the exact age of the two twins Gittel and Chaim but we can assume that they are in their teens (like 14-15) due to clues. There are also luckily characters that you love to hate (cough cough BRUNO cough cough) and some you love but ultimately end up with.....you know where im going with this.

We see the story from Chaim's point of view but get little snippets titled Gittel Remembers where Gittel is telling the reader the story from her point of view, little areas where we could use another perspective.

EDIT: I also want to mention the amazing ending to this book. This book is a work of fiction, but the author (read the author's note) used some real-life scenarios and some real people to create a convincing story. The end we get to see Chaim and Gittel after WWll living in the US I think, and how they went on with their lives (also shout out to Gittel who turned out to be LGBTQ+ and adopted kids). I thought this was a nice touch because it made us connect with the characters more, to show us that there were things after the book ended for them. This made them feel really real, and I was honestly confused at the end so I had to read the Author's Note.

Overall this book was just so good and should be read by everyone, I don't even know how to describe it.

[Erikka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two children live in a small house with their parents. They find themselves in a dark and foreboding woods, lost and cold. One day, they stumble upon a house of candy, filled with promises...and danger. "Hansel and Gretel" takes on a new spin in this third phenomenal and heartbreaking book about the Holocaust from master storyteller Jane Yolen. We traveled through time with "The Devil's Arithmetic", awakened Sleeping Beauty in "Briar Rose", and now we find ourselves in the woods of Poland and at the end of a dangerous scalpel in "Mapping the Bones." Gittel and Chaim are both such lovely characters, nuanced, flawed, and sympathetic. Bruno is probably the most interesting though, as you sometimes want to punch him, and other times want to praise his unwavering desire to win and survive; always, though, in the back of your mind, is the fact that he's a child in a labor camp and you can't help but cheer for him.

It was especially touching right now, in our current political climate, to read about children kept in camps because they are looked at as a lesser type of person. I found myself getting misty a few times as I replaced Jewish faces with Latinx faces in my mind. History repeats and repeats and we never seem to learn from it. This is a dark time and my only hope is that we power through it and come out the other end better, just like some of the characters in this book (I won't tell you who, because spoilers).

If you don't want to read this book, that's fine. We all have genres we are interested in and ones that we pass over. That being said, pick this up and read pages 376-77. Jane Yolen smacked down Holocaust deniers in two pages in a way that most of us couldn't dream of doing in a lifetime of words. I stopped reading for a few minutes to process how beautifully she summarized an argument I can't believe we have to have.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This meaty WWII story that is a retelling of the Hansel and Gretel tale with Chaim and Gittel, twins who are taken to the labor camps in 1942 and the horrific abuse they endured especially being young twins at the hands of an evil doctor.

The beauty of the book is Chaim's poetry and their familial and deeply-felt connection to one another, while also using chapters every so often for reflection by Gittel about those times that adds a layer of beauty like so many adult novels do to provide a storytelling element to why history is very much alive and needs to be so that it may never repeat itself when darkness sets in.

Likewise, the book spans some time and provides a look at Chaim and Gittel in the future and includes some fantastic details that make readers feels like they've just read a biography of two real siblings and not a fictional story, but that's Yolen for you.

[Suzanne Thackston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof. This was a tough read. I love Jane Yolen and was excited to get this copy (signed by the author) but it's no fairy tale.
Not that any Holocaust book should be.
It's beautifully written, in simple prose that puts you right there, with the protagonists. It's not melodramatic or heart-tuggy and it doesn't wallow in the ghastliness.
But it doesn't spare you either.
I'm glad I read it, and I'm glad it's over.

[Sherry Guice · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific and horrifying story of the Holocaust from Jane Yolen. Accessible to middle school students and those older...filled with details and terror.

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Edelweiss for an ARC of this novel.

This is not a light and airy book -- it brings to mind "Night" by Eli Weisel although this particular work is historical fiction. Jane Yolen does a remarkable job of sharing the minds of twins Chaim and Gittel. Chaim is economical with the spoken word, but spins evocative poems out of the words he hears around him. My favorite portions of the book were Chaim's poems. Gittel's contributions are more analytical and she is given the honor of summing up the story for us. We see the true suffering of the children in three parts: the ghetto, the forest and the camp. Highly recommended!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the book was okay, very sad and dark though. There was some language in the book (which was really not necessary), and it was boring at times. It felt like the plot was getting nowhere until part two of the book. I liked 'Devil's Arithmetic' a little more because the plot didn't take so long to progress. I didn't catch on to the "Hansel and Gretel" theme the author tried to create, and the characters are sooo annoying. For some reason, I still enjoyed the book though.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A retelling of Hansel & Gretel through the Nazi occupation of Poland. I love this author. How has it taken this long for me to find her? She's prolific & well known...how has she never shown on my radar?

[elissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very slow read for me, although I do think it was worth it.

[madelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"But now the slow drip, drip of despair, like acid on iron, had begun to eat away that hope."

That was exactly how I felt halfway through the book. I don't know what it is, but I just completely lost interest. The characters that were meant to be a nuisance did their jobs very well--too well. I felt for them, but it did nothing to add to the already so-so book. I think to me, characters are incredibly important, and most of them fell short. I found Bruno to be incredibly annoying, as he should've been, but I kind of had a shred of sympathy for him. Chaim was interesting, but he lacked a little as well. As for all other characters, they're terrible. Period. They're just so... bland, imo. And if I can't get behind the characters, I can't get behind the book.

I forced myself to read as much as I possibly could, but then I just ended up skimming some parts during the last third.

It's a sad book, it's a heavy book, but it just took too long to pick up, and it was too little, too late.

Unless it was a "Gittel Remembers" section, I found the writing to be bland, or just not my thing. Idk. The dialogue was kind of strange, can't really put my finger on it.

Anywho, I think people should give it a read, as it really is just a me thing, I think :/

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Not as good as The Devil's Arithmetic, but what is? I DID like that this was about the overall experience about the Holocaust, not solely set in a concentration camp.

The Hansel and Gretel parallels didn't work. Mostly I was just confused when they started talking about houses made of candy.

[Brianna Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was heartbreaking but a very well written perspective on what the holocaust was like for so many young kids

[Almira · Rating 5 out of 5]

********** SPOILER ALERT********
This is a really hard one to write about.
With the exception of Anne Frank's diary, and a few "older" books about children during WWII on the German side, this is the first novel that I have read that is so vividly written from the point of view of "young" Jewish children. This may not be for everyone, especially towards the end of the book.

If you know about the Holocaust, then you know what "the chimney" is.

We have fraternal twins Chaim and Gittel, and their parents living in a walk-up apartment in the "ghetto" of Lodz. The pace of the beginning of the story is seemingly slow, nothing good happens, but to date nothing bad has really happened to the family, except they were taken from their home and placed in the ghetto. Enter the Norenbergs - not an entirely friendly family of four, father a dentist, mother a "snob", Sophia standoffish (at first) and bully (and "thief") Bruno.
Things do start to happen when the Dr. Norenberg suddenly disappears, Mrs. Norenberg is losing her mental health, Bruno becomes embittered about everything.

After an "escape" that goes all wrong, the four children are whisked off by Polish partisans - at this point the pace of the story starts moving a bit more rapidly. But when they captured and taken to a munitions making camp the pace becomes frenetic, the last chapters become frenzied.

The story is basically told by Chaim, with Gittel remembering after the close of most chapters, so we have the view points of both twins, one in the past and one in the future.

[Bosorka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Líbilo se mi, jak byla kniha rozložena do tří úseků. Vystavěna (jak v doslovu zmiňuje autorka) na základě pohádky O perníkové chaloupce. Hlad, cesta, perníková chaloupka. A Jeníček s Mařenkou, tentokrát coby Chaim a Gittel, kteří musejí projít všemi útrapami až do konce příběhu, kde se utkají s podlou ježibabou. Je to těžší čtení, koneckonců jako většina příběhů z této doby, ale zatímco jsem četla dost příběhů přímo z lágrů, mockrát jsem nečetla knihy odehrávající se v ghettech. Mapa kostí se věnuje jedné rodině, přežívající v lodžském ghettu. Člověk měl vždy pocit, že když k sobě shromáždili do malých krcálků několik rodin, tak ty si vzájemně pomáhaly, nebyl čas na to se třeba povyšovat, ale Jane Yolen v příběhu ukazuje, jak to může vypadat, když se k sobě dostanou rodiny jinak smýšlející, vycházející nejspíš z různých poměrů. A to mě vlastně dost zaujalo. Další část odehrávající se na pochodu lesem mi místy připomínala sérii Morrise Gleitzmana o Felixovi.
Knížka je o životě dětí za války, hlavně těch dětí, které kvůli původu neměly zrovna skvělé vyhlídky. A třeba i o tom, jak ani to nejšílenější dění ve válečné době nedokázalo změnit jejich dané povahy. Mlčenlivý Chaim, skvělá sestra Gittel, neukázněný sobeček Bruno...

[ada!! · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2
I think I started becoming more disgusted towards the ending. I was terrified at the fact someone would even think to do something like the evil characters in this story, and it frightened me even more that most of the methods were based on facts.

What really disappointed me was the fact that the so-called climax seemed to dull right at the ending with a semi-happy ending, but a huge chunk of the story covered up with like, duct tape.
I know the author took it as a way to explain that this was fiction, and that none of the survivors of the war walked away happy, or weren't even given semi-happy endings, but because they were her own characters, she let them.

But otherwise, the characters were so very likable.

Chaim's poetic way of telling us how he coped and Gittel's flashbacks and the companions they made and the endings their story ended with all wrapped the story together. It's a different kind of sad, like, a heavy sad, but I liked it all the less.

Would I recommend this to anyone? If they were interested in this kind of stuff, maybe.

Would I read this again? I'm not sure. I still really haven't gotten over that one disturbing fact, but maybe in a little bit, after I've recovered

[Ann Dague · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Yolen novel, but still interesting.

I really liked how the novel told the story, but also had little excepts from one of the main characters looking back on events as an adult. It gave a little relief knowing that at least one of the main characters was going to survive the tragic events unfolding.

There are so many exceptional novels about WWII, that this book would not be at the top of my list to recommend.

Based on a variety of many different events, the author should have edited the these down and concentrated on just a few so they could be done well. Too many events and characters got mixed together awkwardly and ended up as only an average novel.

It could have been so much more.
Not highly recommended.

[Biblio Brands · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started slow, ended quick. A bit too long. Follows a set of twins and their inherited family, by way of the Łódź ghetto, on their journey of escape, ultimate capture, and escape again during the Holocaust. The last bit of doctor’s experiments were hard to read. Not sure I would recommend this.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

sadly, the blurb gives the reader almost the entire plot of the book, which i found disappointing after finishing... i have read 'The Devil's Arithmetic' and 'Briar Rose' and enjoyed them much more, most assuredly because they relied significantly more on the magical/fantasy/fairy tale aspects than this book lays claim to... having read extensively of the atrocities during WWII, this book was rather pedestrian in its retelling of those horrors (even for it's youthful audience), nor did it do much of anything with the 'Hansel and Gretel' theme mentioned as a thread of the tale... Yolen is a gifted writer, so the pages flew by, but that in and of itself was a problem for me... should the pages have just "flown by" in such a tale? i would say not, and therein lies my problem with this book: it lacked any deep emotional resonance... before anyone gets it in their head that i don't find what happened to the Jews to be horrible, it is not that at all... though i will not call it the "capital-H-word" as there have historically been many holocausts and genocides and i don't agree with the some people acting as if what happened to the Jews exceeds any and all others in importance, magnitude, or awfulness... anyway... Chaim was rather dull, his almost-not-speaking was kinda silly, and he was never allowed to fully develop for me... the interludes by grown-up Gittel in some ways detracted from the story, as it many times summed up what the following pages would be about... i think there was a better way to do that aspect, so i see it as a missed opportunity... again, without sounding heartless, i didn't really are about the characters enough, so much of the happenings, daily bits or larger social chunks, were glossed over or merely casually mentioned... if the idea is to bring the reader a story from participants (fictional, i know) instead of drifting into fantasyland and myth and magical realism, then i expected to care more about the participants... i did not... i found the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale "foundation" to be weak and forced... and arguably unnecessary, as there is enough irrationality and crazytown in what happened to the Jews to hardly need too much make-believe to get a point across... as a book about the horrors of WWII for the Jews this book is hardly sad or scary or nasty enough... as a fairy tale-based history lesson i found it trying desperately to mix in the symbolism of the fairy tale, and to no meaningful effect/affect... there are better books about this subject elsewhere, as Yolen's previous two fantasy forays into it attest, and i would recommend going to look for them... this one was just too uninspiring for me...

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

(7.3/10) - ⭐⭐⭐.5

Mapping the Bones started off really strong, and for the first third or so of this novel, I expected it to be either a high four or even a five star read. Unfortunately, as we moved away from the Łódź ghetto, into the forest, and finally a labor camp, we also gradually moved further away from true events, and that's where the book started to slowly lose me.

This is a me thing. Targeted at a younger audience, I fully understand the choice the author made by moving non-fictional horrors into a fictional setting. That way, there's the freedom of bringing across emotion in an accessible way to teens, without misrepresenting any true accounts. While I think it's equally valuable for teens to read firsthand accounts, I can acknowledge that they're not always 'inviting' for them to read. Works like Mapping the Bones are great for bridging that gap, and I certainly experienced this effect as a teen with one of Yolen's other books, the Devil's Arithmetic.

However, I've now consumed enough literature about the Holocaust to know that I vastly prefer the non-fictionalized accounts, and I frequently find myself annoyed with the fictitious ones because there's just too much to compare it to and find it lacking.

What I will say is that the characters were exceptionally well done. I loved Chaim, especially, but really appreciated the dynamics between all the characters, and the way they managed to stand on their own in settings that make it easy to lump them into a monolith. With that, Yolen really held on to something true.

Yet unfortunately, the pacing wasn't great. While this book started off at a very steady pace, it dragged through the middle and then ended up very abruptly in a setting we were only just introduced to. Had this been spread out better, it could've still easily gotten a full four stars from me.

All in all, a book that potentially holds a lot of value for younger audiences starting to explore this history, but ultimately not something that will stick with me personally.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

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i ended up really enjoying this book from the start.

i dont know what it is about it specifically, but it read very smoothly to me. i read the first chunk on the train and was surprised myself at how much i had read and how often id disturbed my girlfriend reading next to me by pulling her from her book and reading a passage that i thought was beautiful or a poem that was actually really nice.

in a way, the story isnt a very unique story. its a story about work camps that's been done before, but it was well done, in my opinion.

i really enjoyed chaim and gittel as characters. in a way, bruno not so much but thats not because he was badly done, moreso that his personality was one that didnt necessarily suit me. Mrs Norenberg for me was a very interesting character, and it was nice to also see some rep for mental illness despite the fact that she is killed off for it and used as a sacrifice to make a point, which rubs me the wrong way.

after this, im definitely interested in picking up one of the authors other books and seeing if i enjoy it just as much

[Teenreadsdotcom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early in their journey trying to escape the fearful Nazis, Chaim and his twin, Gittel, are separated from their parents. They don’t know what has happened to them, but they do know that now they must go on without them. Something has gone terribly wrong. They travel with Sophie and her brother Bruno who are close in ages to the twins. Sophie and Bruno, along with their parents, had been living with Chaim’s family. Now they try to follow the careful instruction laid out for them but are soon intercepted.

For a short while the children seem to be moving in the right path. But they must wonder, who is a friend? Who is a traitor? Who really knows? The odds are against them. The miles are long, the enemies are everywhere and the risks are high. They are cold, hungry, frightened and weary beyond words.

They see bloodshed and violence before finally arriving at the camp, but continue hoping their parents will be there. Sadly they never see their parents again and this camp is a Nazi death camp. There they experience the most unspeakable evils ever imagined, yet nothing, absolutely nothing, prepares them for meeting the infamous Doctor Von Schneir. This doctor has a special interest in twins and he likes to experiment without anesthesia.

Jane Yolen, author of the award-winning THE DEVIL’S ARITHMETIC, among numerous other fine works, has based this fictional story on many real incidents. For instance, Doctor Von Schneir, she explains, is based upon the monstrous Doctor Mengele and others like him. The horrors of the death camps and the thousands of persons who died in them are not exaggerated. She also explains how the poetic Chaim and his sister Gittel, are like Hansel and Gretel of the dark fairy tale --- a universal story of good and bad, of children in the grips of adult evil.

There are real heroes in MAPPING THE BONES, just as there were during the actual Holocaust. Against all odds some do escape or are rescued and live to tell of their experiences. Yolen gives us some of their stories in this book --- stories to be horrified by and to never forget.

Both young adults and adults will find this book both riveting as well as educational. Though not a pleasant story, it is a story that needs to be told. The bravery of these children gives one hope.

With the focus on the WWII Holocaust, this will be a book that should be in all schools and public libraries.

Reviewed by Sally Tibbetts

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Jane Yolen's writing and have read many of her books for children and young adults. This title is her third book focusing on the Holocaust and is meant for young adults. Loosely based on the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, the story is about a brother and sister, twins, who are separated from their parents and end up in a labour camp in Poland during World War II. The story is mostly told in the third person but interspersed are chapters where the sister remembers what happened to the two of them. The brother rarely speaks and his remembrances are poems that he writes in his mind because he has no access to paper and pencils. The story is powerful, maybe because of this structure. It is not sugar coated. I found reading it now with the war between Russia and Ukraine on my mind that the story seemed very real and frightening.

[dhmhtra · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a good book. sure. but i expected a lot more.
the synopsis that the author gives makes it sound like Łódź, the forest and the reach to Sobanek are just the beginning, and the stay in Sobanek is the biggest part. I expected that the doctor's experiments would be given more weight, that the twins connection, their "secret language" would be given the most weight, but it was not.
the ending felt rushed, as if Jane Yolen had a deadline and couldn't quite finish the book on time, so she drafted a quick end and gave it, without developing it at all. I didn't like the ending.
overall the book did make me cry, yes, but i expected to cry a lot more.

[Martha Schwalbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it coincidental that I am reading and hearing so much about Polish Resistance fighters during WWII? I knew about the German resistance fighters but not so much about the Polish fighters. This past year I've read books, papers, and heard lectures on the topic of these fighters.
The story in Mapping the Bones kept me reading and feeling depressed when the bad things happened, yet a book about the Holocaust needs the bad things so they weren't unexpected. The good things that happened were very unexpected.
I would recommend this book to students who enjoy historical fiction, especially that of WWII.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I remember reading Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic when I was in middle school and loving it. That book had a much bigger impact on me but that likely had to do with my age. The terror of this time period doesn’t ever go away. It is really horrifying. Overall a good book and didnt feel like a YA book.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply put. Read this book. You will laugh. You will get angry...oh, so angry. You will cry. And, just when you think all hope is lost, you will stand up and cheer. This book is moving, inspiring, and is a glimmer of hope that I feel we all need in this social and political climate, in which we live.
“But sometimes in a novel, the author can save a few lives, can choose those who make it to the end. And that is what I have done.”-Jane Yolen

[Dorine]

This book didn’t have the best timing with me.

It is a good book I think, written well, but man it’s very dark. I am left with an empty feeling that I wasn’t quite prepared or ready for.
That’s the reason why I won’t be rating this book. It’s an important story that must be told, but make sure you are in the right mindset when you pick this up ❤️

[Ashley Phelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always struggle to review books about the Holocaust because even if they’re fiction, they’re still based on horrific truths. It’s hard to believe people are 1) capable of doing such terrible things and 2) capable of surviving such terrible things. There was one scene in particular toward the end of the book that was unbelievably gruesome and sadistic…it was so hard to read. The story was very well told if a little slow-paced. I really liked Chaim’s character and narration and poetry. I also liked the author’s use of the Hansel and Gretel tale as “the armature on which [the story] hangs.”

[Chaitra · Rating 4 out of 5]

For most of the book I thought Chaim would get eaten by the wolf, Hansel and Gretel or not. But I loved that it didn't happen, and I wish some of this had happened in real life too.

I also liked the character Bruno, because it doesn't matter if they're all victims together, there are all kinds.