The Tie Man's Miracle: A Chanukah Story

Schnur, Steven

ISBN 10: 0688134645 ISBN 13: 9780688134648

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1995

Synopsis

Looking forward to lighting the menorah on the last night of Chanukah, Seth finds his night becoming even more memorable when old Mr. Hoffman, the tie man, visits and tells a story about a Chanukah miracle.

About this title

About the Author

In His Own Words...

"The summer I turned eight my family moved from the suburban town I had lived in all my life to a neighboring community six miles away. For my parents, who had spent their childhood fleeing Hitler, the change meant little more than an additional bedroom or two for their growing family of four sons. But for me, the sudden loss of neighborhood and friends seemed an upheaval as great as any they had endured during the 1930s. In an instant I became an outsider, a stranger, the new kid on the block. The shock awakened me from the cozy sleep of infancy and thrust me overnight into the great world of newspapers and radios and books, a world full of mystery and menace and wonder.

"It was a fascinating and fearsome time to wake up: John Kennedy, was about to be elected president, the threat of nuclear war hung in the air, and the first cautious explorations of outer space coincided with the first tentative revelations of the horrors of the Holocaust.

"With the Cold War providing the persistent background hum of impending annihilation, a hum that filled the ears of every child of the fifties, I began to learn the I Holocaust's terrible lessons of mail's limitless capacity for evil. The more I read about those awful years, the more I realized that events played out on the world stage had enormous impact on my own life. Though my immediate family had escaped Unscathed from the flames if Europe, many distant relatives had not. And had it not been for the war, I would have grown up not as an American in a suburb of New York City but, like my parents, as a German citizen of Berlin or Dresden.

"There was one other central constellation in the firmament of my youth: love. I was blessed to fall in love early in life and remain that way. Within days of meeting my future wife I knew we would one day marry. Eight years later, after high school, college, and postgraduate studies, we did. A long period of infertility followed, but the., with the swiftness of a miracle, three children were born: a daughter and boy/girl twins. Ever since I have thought of myself as a father first; everything else has become secondary.

"Writing for me has always been an expression of gratitude, an outgrowth of the impulse to give thanks for love received, for children born, for the miraculous existence of the imagination. When I write for adults I often do so in a state of wonder, transfixed by blessings. When I write for children I try to recapture the eight-year-old boy I once was, a boy filled with a passionate interest in the unfolding world around him. And finally I write in the hope of leaving behind a legacy of thought and feeling that my children might one day mine, if not for answers at least for solace, in the recognition that we traveled the same road of doubt and discovery."

From Booklist

Ages 5^-8. Chanukah, the Jewish celebration of miracles, is a wonderfully fitting backdrop for this unquestionably sentimental but beautifully told story of little wonders. The arrival of elderly Mr. Hoffman, who sells ties from a cardboard box he carries with him, makes seven-year-old Seth impatient. It's the last night of Chanukah, and Seth wants to get on with the traditional lighting of the candles. But Seth's parents--wise, kind, and not so hurried--urge the old man to join their celebrations. Mr. Hoffman stays and, in answering Seth's nosy questions about his family, explains about the Holocaust and tells a legend that stretches back to his boyhood: if all nine candles on the menorah burn down at the same time, a wish will travel "straight to the ear of God." Schnur leaves plenty of room for adults to introduce information about the Holocaust (which he describes only as "a terrible war" ) to children if they feel the time is right, and although there's a sense of miracles in the making (as expected, the candles burn down together), there's no pushy resolution: Seth is left to wonder whether, indeed, his generous wish for the old man really comes true. Johnson's fluid watercolors are really quite fine, giving all the characters, especially Mr. Hoffman, substance, individuality, and dignity. Not simply a book about the holiday, this quiet, heartfelt, affirmative intergenerational story speaks to the bonds that hold us all fast and to our belief in miracles. Ideal for lap sharing and for using with small groups. Stephanie Zvirin

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0688134645
• ISBN 13: 9780688134648
• Binding: Library Binding
• Illustrator: Johnson Stephen T.