Customer Reviews

The Tie Man's Miracle : A Chanukah Tale

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a wonderful book this is! Seven-year-old Seth is waiting impatiently for his father to get home on the last night of Chanukah when the Tie Man shows up at the front door. As the elderly door-to-door necktie vendor unties the cardboard box containng his wares, Seth fears he will delay the family's celebration. He asks the Tie Man "Isn't your family waiting for you?" just to hurry him out the door. But when the sight of Seth's baby sister Hannah leads the old man to join the famiy in the menorah lighting, Seth begins to wonder about that question in earnest. The Tie Man responds to his innocent, direct questions with a sad story about the loss of his wife and five children in a "terrible war,"; and with a happy story about wishing on Chanukah candles in the village of his youth. After the Tie Man leaves, Seth wishes with all his heart on the Chanukah candles for the Tie Man to get his family back.

At the conclusion of the evening, Seth has learned that there are wants greater than his own. He has learned about loving concern for other people. And, he has learned about a world in which both concentration camp victims and wishes to Heaven are carried upward in a flicker of light and a whirl of smoke.

Although this is a children's book, it is a beautiful Chanukah story for all ages and faiths. (I'm an Italian Protestant, but my great-grandfather was Jewish, and I light a menorah each year in honor of my Jewish ancestry.) The simple words portray a moving event that makes me cry with sadness and joy each time I read this compassionate and graceful story.

This is a simply beautiful story. It is told with honesty and compassion. It is rare that I find such a meaningful tale amid all the commercialism of this season. I want to thank the author and illustrator for sharing their words, pictures and hearts. The world is a kinder, richer, more enlightened place because of them. One caveat: because of the reference to the Holocaust and the tie man losing his entire family, I would not recommend reading this to any child younger than seven. But all in all, just a thoughtful, moving classic-in-the-making.

There are several good messages in this book: respect the past and one's elders, open your mind and heart to those who have experienced tragedy, accept the possibility of miracles. How awful, then, it is to realize that in "Little Match Girl" fashion, the Tie Man's "miracle" is his death. Even worse for the children in the story to understand that they have unwittingly wished for--and caused--this. To think that for decades all the Tie Man wanted to do was die so he could "reunite" with his family is a message of despair, not of hope.

Survivors of the Holocaust and other family-destroying tragedies have found strength to create new lives for themselves and to make a positive impact on humanity, not just to mark time until they die; why the Tie Man is portrayed as incapable or uninterested in doing so is the central tragedy in this book.

The anguish I felt for the title character was replaced by anger at the manipulative text. The pictures are engaging and the title and beginning of the story are deceptive. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a good book to read to your children.