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The Number on My Grandfather's Arm
The moving story of a young girl who learns of her grandfather's experience in Auschwitz and then helps him overcome his sensitivity about the number on his arm, this award-winning picture book gives young children "just enough" information about the Holocaust without overwhelming them.
32 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
About the author
David A. Adler
411 books209 followersDavid Abraham Adler is an American children's author. He was born in New York City, New York in 1947. He graduated from Queens College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics and education. For the next nine years, he worked as a mathematics teacher for the New York City Board of Education, while taking classes towards a master's degree in marketing, a degree he was awarded by New York University in 1971. In that same year, a question from his then-three-year-old nephew inspired Adler to write his first story, A Little at a Time, subsequently published by Random House in 1976. Adler's next project, a series of math books, drew on his experience as a math teacher. In 1977, he created his most famous character, Cam Jansen, originally featured in Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, which was published that year.
Adler married psychologist Renee Hamada in 1973, and their first child, Michael, was born in 1977. By that time Adler had taken a break from teaching and, while his wife continued her work, he stayed home, took care of Michael, and began a full-time writing career.
Adler's son, Michael S. Adler, is now the co-author of several books with his father, including A Picture Book of Sam Adams, A Picture Book of John Hancock, and A Picture Book of James and Dolly Madison. Another son, Edward, was the inspiration for Adler's Andy Russell series, with the events described in the series loosely based on adventures the Adler family had with Edward's enthusiasm and his pets.
As of November 2008, Adler has three sons and two grandsons. He lives in Woodmere, New York.
(source: Wikipedia)
Adler married psychologist Renee Hamada in 1973, and their first child, Michael, was born in 1977. By that time Adler had taken a break from teaching and, while his wife continued her work, he stayed home, took care of Michael, and began a full-time writing career.
Adler's son, Michael S. Adler, is now the co-author of several books with his father, including A Picture Book of Sam Adams, A Picture Book of John Hancock, and A Picture Book of James and Dolly Madison. Another son, Edward, was the inspiration for Adler's Andy Russell series, with the events described in the series loosely based on adventures the Adler family had with Edward's enthusiasm and his pets.
As of November 2008, Adler has three sons and two grandsons. He lives in Woodmere, New York.
(source: Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 15, 2017
Text: 2 stars
Photographs: 2 stars
We can't change history and children need to learn what really happened in World War II. However, I'm not sure that this amount of information needs to be disclosed to 7-yr-olds. Perhaps the problem is the bluntness in which the information is conveyed. Because Benno and the Night of Broken Glass is a very effective picture book about Kristallnacht, for example.
The reaction from the granddaughter lacks credibility. Children of that age bracket are still very concrete thinkers. And her optimism is a strange response to hearing about the tortures and murders of so many people with whom she shares a religion and heritage. Especially since some of those people were her own extended family, even if she's never met them.
Poor layout and design. Many of the photographs are dark and/or difficult to see well. Ten of the 28 pages contain a small amount of text and no art at all, leaving a large blank space on those pages. Two of the photos feature random holocaust victims who are not characters in the story.
Photographs: 2 stars
We can't change history and children need to learn what really happened in World War II. However, I'm not sure that this amount of information needs to be disclosed to 7-yr-olds. Perhaps the problem is the bluntness in which the information is conveyed. Because Benno and the Night of Broken Glass is a very effective picture book about Kristallnacht, for example.
The reaction from the granddaughter lacks credibility. Children of that age bracket are still very concrete thinkers. And her optimism is a strange response to hearing about the tortures and murders of so many people with whom she shares a religion and heritage. Especially since some of those people were her own extended family, even if she's never met them.
Poor layout and design. Many of the photographs are dark and/or difficult to see well. Ten of the 28 pages contain a small amount of text and no art at all, leaving a large blank space on those pages. Two of the photos feature random holocaust victims who are not characters in the story.
May 5, 2016
This story portrays a middle class old German man; he is a tailor that has a very close relationship with his granddaughter and whose activities back in Germany’s countryside, as well as his cultural traits and lifestyle, are totally left in the past as he moved to America. However, he is ashamed of his past and hides it the same way he hides the number on his arm from being seen by his dearest granddaughter.
Since the very beginning, grandpa does not allow us to make any explicit connections to those key characteristics that made up his identity other than his German origins and the Nazi Holocaust until he is forced for the circumstances to tell his little granddaughter his story related to Adolph Hitler’s dictatorship and the Jewish Holocaust. From that point on he unveils his past identity as Jewish, I say “apparently” because we cannot be absolutely sure if in the story he’s still Jewish, we do not see any garment that can make allusion to that, his speech also reveals he talks about the Jewish as “they” but then his narration involves him when he finally acknowledges saying “I survived”.
The difference is here constructed based on religious preferences held in the past that led a strong disapproval and rejection because of someone who represented the danger of meaningless, nonsense arguments that ruled European society in the past and affected Jewish as victims and their executioners too. There is also the difference in age, his granddaughter who belonged to a new generation demanded him to stop hiding the past and encouraged him to confront it while making his family aware of past sorrows because of religious bigotry and how much it influenced the decision to assimilate a new way of living, new places, as to absorb another’s culture meanings.
An unequal world meant suffering, injustice, and give up own way of living. Surrender but eventually, fight back getting to his feet, migrate and continue looking forward with his family. There is an agency in the three characters present in the story: grandpa, daughter, and granddaughter, as soon as they face the painful history, and takes place a reconciliation between present and past through the awareness, not necessarily forgiveness, but strength; as well as the granddaughter's agency when she asks for the truth and also gets emotionally affected, she looks up, give her opinion to her grandpa and he encourages her to give both a step forward. In that sense, perceptions are transformed from him being ashamed to no longer be in front of his granddaughter, they continued their urban life once having looked back at the past, and they both nurtured their relationship based on respect and strength.
Characters' lives and perspectives are interconnected in terms of letting the girl know his emotions and the fact of sharing the silence and feeling of capsizing. Perspectives interrelate among each other and move between remembering by one side and acknowledging by the other. The photos were instrumental in the sense they captured emotional moments but hide others too, with that I mean, there were two pages purposefully selected by the author wherein the grandpa was telling that the Jews no longer were people but numbers and the tearful scene of him and his granddaughter let the readers use his imagination to fill that blank space and invites us to act like the girl did when trying to imagine what she will never see but that her grandpa’s emotions can convey to her.
Since the very beginning, grandpa does not allow us to make any explicit connections to those key characteristics that made up his identity other than his German origins and the Nazi Holocaust until he is forced for the circumstances to tell his little granddaughter his story related to Adolph Hitler’s dictatorship and the Jewish Holocaust. From that point on he unveils his past identity as Jewish, I say “apparently” because we cannot be absolutely sure if in the story he’s still Jewish, we do not see any garment that can make allusion to that, his speech also reveals he talks about the Jewish as “they” but then his narration involves him when he finally acknowledges saying “I survived”.
The difference is here constructed based on religious preferences held in the past that led a strong disapproval and rejection because of someone who represented the danger of meaningless, nonsense arguments that ruled European society in the past and affected Jewish as victims and their executioners too. There is also the difference in age, his granddaughter who belonged to a new generation demanded him to stop hiding the past and encouraged him to confront it while making his family aware of past sorrows because of religious bigotry and how much it influenced the decision to assimilate a new way of living, new places, as to absorb another’s culture meanings.
An unequal world meant suffering, injustice, and give up own way of living. Surrender but eventually, fight back getting to his feet, migrate and continue looking forward with his family. There is an agency in the three characters present in the story: grandpa, daughter, and granddaughter, as soon as they face the painful history, and takes place a reconciliation between present and past through the awareness, not necessarily forgiveness, but strength; as well as the granddaughter's agency when she asks for the truth and also gets emotionally affected, she looks up, give her opinion to her grandpa and he encourages her to give both a step forward. In that sense, perceptions are transformed from him being ashamed to no longer be in front of his granddaughter, they continued their urban life once having looked back at the past, and they both nurtured their relationship based on respect and strength.
Characters' lives and perspectives are interconnected in terms of letting the girl know his emotions and the fact of sharing the silence and feeling of capsizing. Perspectives interrelate among each other and move between remembering by one side and acknowledging by the other. The photos were instrumental in the sense they captured emotional moments but hide others too, with that I mean, there were two pages purposefully selected by the author wherein the grandpa was telling that the Jews no longer were people but numbers and the tearful scene of him and his granddaughter let the readers use his imagination to fill that blank space and invites us to act like the girl did when trying to imagine what she will never see but that her grandpa’s emotions can convey to her.
March 30, 2010
Summary:The moving story of a young girl who learns her grandfather's experience in Auschwitz and then helps him overcome his sensitivity about the number on his arm, this award-winning picture book gives young children "just enough" information about the Holocaust without overwhelming them
Written by: David Adler
Photographs by: Rose Eichenbaum
Audience: 1st-4th
Genre: Multi-cultural picture book
Topics: Holocaust, World War Two, human cruelty, and life experiences
Illustrations: The photographs bring the story to life and symbolize the story with the use of black and white photos.
Usage:This particular book can be used in a variety of setting in the classroom including independent reading, guided reading, and reading out loud. This is a great book to introduce World War II or the Holocaust to children who are young.
Written by: David Adler
Photographs by: Rose Eichenbaum
Audience: 1st-4th
Genre: Multi-cultural picture book
Topics: Holocaust, World War Two, human cruelty, and life experiences
Illustrations: The photographs bring the story to life and symbolize the story with the use of black and white photos.
Usage:This particular book can be used in a variety of setting in the classroom including independent reading, guided reading, and reading out loud. This is a great book to introduce World War II or the Holocaust to children who are young.
March 25, 2010
This historical fiction book is told from the point of view of a little girl who one day notices the number tattooed on her grandfather's arm (he normally keeps it hidden). He explains to the girl how he got the number and how the Nazi party took over Europe and the awful things that were being done to Jews at the time. The little girl comforts the grandfather by telling him he shouldn't be ashamed of the number because he did nothing wrong, it was the Nazis who would be ashamed.
I would use this book as in introduction to a unit on the Holocaust. I would have the children either write journal entries as if they were one of the Jews in a concentration camp or have the students write letters to Hitler about their opinions of the political movement of the time.
I would use this book as in introduction to a unit on the Holocaust. I would have the children either write journal entries as if they were one of the Jews in a concentration camp or have the students write letters to Hitler about their opinions of the political movement of the time.
December 6, 2011
The Number on My Grandfather's Arm is the story of of a Holocaust survivor whose daughter happens to notice his identification number. Upon her questioning it, her grandfather opens up and tells about the atrocities of Hitler's concentration camps. While a very grave topic, it is handled with class: at no point does the book cross the line of too much information. I would recommend this to a slightly older group of students.
September 4, 2010
Very real story told in pictures and word about the horrors of the Holocaust from a grandfather to his granddaughter when she discovers the numbers on his arm.
December 4, 2011
This is a great and informational book about the lasting effects of the Holocaust on families. I might read this to an older grade to give perspective of how it changed so many lives.
April 25, 2013
A photo recount of the day a little girl learned what the tattooed numbers on her grandfather are mean.
September 30, 2013
o.k. Granddaughter learns what the numbers on her grandfather's arm are from. Dated
November 14, 2017
1. Awards received: This book has not received any awards.
2. Appropriate grade level(s): This book is appropriate for grade 1 to grade 4.
3. Summary: A little girl notices numbers on her grandfather’s arm and out of curiosity she questions him about. He winds up disclosing to her about his experiences as an Auschwitz survivor. He tells her all about Hitler, the Nazis, and the atrocities in the concentration camps. The granddaughter consoles her grandfather by telling him that he shouldn't be ashamed because he did nothing wrong, but rather the Nazis should be ashamed.
4. I feel like the black and white photographs were able to capture emotions and bring the story more to life. The vocabulary is simple enough to get the story across to younger audiences, but not simple enough to remove the severity and emotion from the story. I think that it has just enough information to be talked about with younger students.
5. Uses in the classroom:
-This book can be used as an introduction to a unit on the Holocaust
-Talk about the outcomes of the Holocaust (how it affected/still affects people’s lives)
2. Appropriate grade level(s): This book is appropriate for grade 1 to grade 4.
3. Summary: A little girl notices numbers on her grandfather’s arm and out of curiosity she questions him about. He winds up disclosing to her about his experiences as an Auschwitz survivor. He tells her all about Hitler, the Nazis, and the atrocities in the concentration camps. The granddaughter consoles her grandfather by telling him that he shouldn't be ashamed because he did nothing wrong, but rather the Nazis should be ashamed.
4. I feel like the black and white photographs were able to capture emotions and bring the story more to life. The vocabulary is simple enough to get the story across to younger audiences, but not simple enough to remove the severity and emotion from the story. I think that it has just enough information to be talked about with younger students.
5. Uses in the classroom:
-This book can be used as an introduction to a unit on the Holocaust
-Talk about the outcomes of the Holocaust (how it affected/still affects people’s lives)
June 26, 2023
"It's time you told her," said the narrator's mother.
Then Grandpa told a story, illustrated with photographs, about how he was imprisoned in Auschwitz.
For the sake of those who believe it is okay to tell children under 13 about the cruelties of human history, FIVE STARS.
PLEASE CONSIDER, THOUGH
Once you take away a child's innocence, nobody can replace it.
Please, spare your children under 13 any stories like this one. Whether it's history of the Holocaust or Black History or any other story of great cruelty, from one group of humans to another.
After 13, okay. Although, probably children old enough to learn about this topic are also strong enough readers to read chapter books, yes?
Then Grandpa told a story, illustrated with photographs, about how he was imprisoned in Auschwitz.
For the sake of those who believe it is okay to tell children under 13 about the cruelties of human history, FIVE STARS.
PLEASE CONSIDER, THOUGH
Once you take away a child's innocence, nobody can replace it.
Please, spare your children under 13 any stories like this one. Whether it's history of the Holocaust or Black History or any other story of great cruelty, from one group of humans to another.
After 13, okay. Although, probably children old enough to learn about this topic are also strong enough readers to read chapter books, yes?
April 26, 2019
This book has not won any awards, and would be appropriate for children in 2nd-4th grade.
A girl notices numbers on her grandfather's arm and questions him about it. He tells her about how he survived Auschwitz. He talks about Hitler, the nazis and the concentration camps.
I like the use of black and white photographs in the book. The story is simple enough for young children but serious enough for the topic.
This can be used in a classroom when learning about the effect of the Holocaust, or simply as an introduction to that topic in history.
A girl notices numbers on her grandfather's arm and questions him about it. He tells her about how he survived Auschwitz. He talks about Hitler, the nazis and the concentration camps.
I like the use of black and white photographs in the book. The story is simple enough for young children but serious enough for the topic.
This can be used in a classroom when learning about the effect of the Holocaust, or simply as an introduction to that topic in history.
August 27, 2026
This book was everywhere when I was a kid, growing up in Jewish Ann Arbor and in the Hebrew Day School. I never read it, because as students, we were already taught a lot about the Holocaust. This book was published, at least initially, by what would ultimately become the URJ's book publishing wing, so I imagine the audience for this book would have been Jewish children the age of the girl in the book, who is probably the same age as me. This book is essential. Every Jewish kid should still read this book.
March 12, 2021
Rooted in a true family story, this is a seemingly simple and warmly affectionate approach to sharing the truth of the Holocaust, but involves enough harsh reality, within limited explanatory text, that it could generate misunderstanding or anxiety if used freestanding or with children not developmentally able to sort past/present and individual harm versus societal actions.
November 28, 2017
I wouldn't recommend it for young teens, but it was a good representation of what happened.
April 11, 2021
This is not a good book to introduce what happened during the Holocaust to children. It glosses over too many big topics.
April 2, 2022
Awesome book
November 26, 2025
"We were no longer people to them.
We were numbers."
Simple enough for a child, yet the with enough depth to not bored older readers.
We were numbers."
Simple enough for a child, yet the with enough depth to not bored older readers.
March 28, 2021
I think this could have been a much better book if it was a non-fiction telling of the man who is pictured in the book.
This book is fiction and tells of a grand-daughter learning the story of the number on her grandfather’s arm.
This book is fiction and tells of a grand-daughter learning the story of the number on her grandfather’s arm.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews