Page 57 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

STORIES SEEMED TO TUMBLE OUT OF HANNAH'S MOUTH,
reruns of all the movies and books she could think of.
She told the girls about Yentl and then about Conan
the Barbarian with equal vigor; about Star Wars, which
confused them; and Fiddler on the Roof, which did not.
She told them the plot of Little Women in ten minutes,
a miracle of compression, especially since her book re-
port had been seven typed pages.
She mesmerized them with her tellings. After the first
one, which they had interrupted every third sentence
with questions, they were an attentive audience, and
silent except for their frequent loud sighs and Esther's
nervous laughter at all the wrong moments.
Rachel cried at the end of Yentl, when Hannah de-
scribed Barbra Streisand bravely sailing off to America
alone. And all four had tears running down their cheeks\
when Beth died in Little Women. Hannah wondered at
this strange power she held in her mouth. It was true

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