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Mapping the Bones was written by Jane Yolen. Mapping the Bones is set in World War II and focuses on two twins with the names Chaim and Gittel. Chaim has a stutter, so he speaks in phrases of five words or less and he writes poetry. Gittel is carefree and optimistic and at times this results in naivety. The twins create a secret code they use to communicate.

Chaim and Gittel live with their parents and they are a Jewish family. The family moderately practices their faith. The Nazis force the family to resettle into an apartment in the ghettos. Later, the Norenburgs, another Jewish family, have to move into the same apartment. Dr. Norenberg is a dentist and his wife takes care of her two children, Bruno and Sophie. The Nazis arrest Dr. Norenberg when he is caught buying medicine for his patients. After the arrest, Mrs. Norenberg’s mental health starts to decline, as she slowly becomes delusional in the hope that her husband will return.

The Nazis send for Chaim and Gittel’s family, in an attempt to relocate them again. The parents decide to try to escape with all the kids, but Bruno refuses to go with them until they agree to take Mrs. Norenberg as well. The families save themselves and end up living in a deserted house. When the Nazis invade the house, Mrs Norenberg sacrifices herself to save her children. After the Nazi raid, the group flees to the forest. The parents arrange for a woman to transport the kids to a tribe called the Partisans. Little do the twins know that this will be the last time they will see their parents. The Partisans provide protection for several weeks by always moving and staying silent. When the Paristans finally have to rest, the Nazis find the group and kill everyone but the kids. The Nazis take the children to Sobanek, which is a labor camp. A few months later, Sophie and Gittel, along with a number of other kids at the camp, contract Typhoid. Dr. von Schneir comes to the camp to take care of the sick. He isolates the sick kids into a separate barrack. Later, Bruno informs Dr. von Schneir that Chaim and Gittel are twins along with another kid named Gregor who lost his twin. Sofie eventually dies from Typhoid.

Two weeks later, Dr. von Schneir takes Gittel, Chaim, and Gregor to the Welcome House to experiment. The Welcome House is a place outside the camp, which houses Dr. von Schneir and other leaders of the camp. Dr. von Schneir experiments on the twins and Gregor for months. He decides he wants to study the hearts of twins and proceeds to cut Gregor open, and remove his heart. As Dr. von Schneir goes for Chaim, Gittel jumps on his neck, killing von Schneir instantly. When the soldiers see Dr. von Schneir dead, they believe he slipped and fell from Gregor’s blood. The Americans save the kids a few months later. The twins survive the experimentation and the labor camp and become successful adults.

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The theme is war changes people. Every character introduced in Mapping the Bones changes in some way and Yolen directs the reader's attention to those changes.“‘It was just my husband going out to find you some medicine. He’s a saint, that man.’ Mrs. Norenberg’s voice was a bit flustered, even whiny” (Yolen 36). She is being faithful to her husband. She is showing emotion, even if it is not the most positive emotion. “Bruno rolled his eyes but the rest of the family–with the exception of Mrs. Norenberg, now dozing in her chair–listened intently” (Yolen 116). She cannot do anything but sleep. She’s emotionally numb and apathetic.

The theme war changes people transcends other themes such as love includes sacrifice or something else. This theme includes other minor themes, the themes that are argued are also included with war changing people. Yolen wants the readers to wonder how far someone would go for someone they love and how much that changes someone. “If I thought about my future then, it surely didn’t include weapons. It held school and university, work as a teacher like Mama, until marriage” (Yolen 189). Gittel never thinks of being violent. She is an innocent kid who couldn’t dream of hurting anyone. “From out of nowhere–Gittel–both hands suddenly released from both her cuffs–leaped off her chair and pushed von Schneir on the chest with such force he fell over backward” (Yolen 404). She had to be violent. She protects the one she loves, Chaim. She wants to save him.

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Chaim came from a closed off person to a more open person. “Chaim had turned to Gittel, flashed her the hand sign that meant ‘lies.’ His left pointer finger down, his right pointer finger up” (Yolen 6). Chaim has a stutter so he keeps communicating silently by using a type of sign language the twins created. He is very closed off, voicing fear physically and not verbally. “‘

Gittel,” he whispered. And when she didn’t move, he said more frantically, ‘Gittel!” (Yolen 322). Chaim’s fear is transcending his normal demeanor. He is frantic and his usual quiet demeanor disappears instantly. Now he is shouting out to Gittel, verbally trying to get her attention. “He laughed at my unintended pun. When he reads the poems aloud on his many tours, he neither stutters nor falters with the words.” (Yolen 412). Chaim laughs more and he’s much more confident. He is sharing his work, reading it aloud. He is showing himself to an audience.

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Mapping the Bones may be a historical-fiction but it is an accurate interpretation of World War II. One of the positives Yolen uses is showing how careful actual Partisan groups were in real time. “They waited til dark and kept the fire low, contained, allowing the smoke to filter out very slowly through three windows, with the rain helping to disguise it as fog” (Yolen, 211). Yolen points out how even when the Partisans had to rest, they still used tricky ways to keep themselves safe.

One of the weaknesses in Mapping the Bones, Yolen introduces the Partisans. “Two were women, one as old as Mama, the other a teenager… But in their camouflage pants and shirts, with her cropped hair, their rough speech, it was hard to tell the women from the men” (Yolen 190). The Parisians are meant to be Jewish rebellion groups, nothing more. In the quote, they point out it’s hard to decipher the genders. The point is the Partisans are not supposed to be seen. Specifying the gender and age feels useless for the reader. Yolen includes the gender and age which is inaccurate to actual Partisans. The only thing that was supposed to truly matter was camouflage.

Mapping the Bones is more centered for older and mature audiences. Yolen includes things that make the reader imagine scenes in their heads. “until the doctor raised his bloody hands above his head, with Gregor’s heart held firmly, like a piece of fresh meat the butcher was about to put in the case” (Yolen, 401). Yolen makes this very descriptive to emphasize the true horrors of work camps. Readers should read Mapping the Bones with caution, or basic research about the Holocaust.

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Evelyn Evelyn shows the change between Chaim and Gittel's relationship. They used to be very close. The war changed Gittel temporarily which made her drift. If the twins were the characters in the song, Gittel would be the male, and Chaim would be the female.

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This background was chosen because it shows a World War II work camp. In one part of Mapping the Bones, the setting is in a work camp. The font was switched from the generic font to the typewriter font. Out of all fonts, the typewriter font seems the most like a child would write. Mapping the Bones is primarily based around children, so this was the direction that was decided. The color red was chosen, for the sections, to symbolize the amount of bloodshed in Mapping the Bones. The bomb emoji is used because the children are forced to make bombs.