Tikvah Means Hope

A sukkah is not a permanent structure but a temporary dwelling. A wind can easily blow a sukkah down, a rain can wash it away. Patricia Polacco tells an ironic tale in Tikvah Means Hope about how a natural disaster destroyed material possessions that people felt were permanent while a sukkah, something built only for a short time, persevered.It is the story of Mr. and Mrs. Roth of Oakland, who build a sukkah in the backyard of their house. While they put up their ritual hut, two neighborhood children, Justine and Duane decide to help them in their task. In the process, Justine and Duane learn the meaning of the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, a precursor to the American holiday of Thanksgiving."You see, we Jews have always had to move a lot," says Mr. Roth to the children. "We wandered in the desert for many years. Then at long last we found the promised Land and settled into real homes. Now we build these little huts to remind us of all the days we had no place to live, and also to give thanks for our new homes and rich harvest that our new land gave us."For their efforts, the Roths invite Justine and Duane to sleep in their sukah and celebrate a festive meal in it. Before the children can take advantage of the hospitality, they are evacuated from their homes. A fire ravages their neighborhood burning their houses to the ground.The Roths are devastated by the event. After the fire is put out,they search frantically among the ashes to find something that would prove they had a life here.Just when the older man is about to lose all hope, Justine and Duane shout for him to come to the backyard. When Mr. Roth arrives, he sees one object still standing among the ashes: the sukkah. Mr. Roth can not believe his eyes. How could the sukkah not be damaged? How could the fire not consume it? His wife proclaims the occurrence a miracle.The fact that the sukkah survives, however, is not the only miracle. When the Roths gather with their neighbors in the sukkah to celebrate the blessing of life, they hear a noise from the barbecue pit. Mr. Roth reaches down into it and pulls out their pet cat, Tikvah. The feline creature is hungry, tired and little singed but still alive.TikvahMmeans Hope is based on a true story. In the fall of 1991, Patricia Polacco's home and those of 3,400 of her neighbors were ravaged by fire in her home of Oakland.Tragedy happens on a random basis. Tikvah Means Hope emphasizes that despite the obstacles one may encounter, there is till signs of hope, there are still signs that can impress upon us the importance of keeping a positive outlook on life.Polacco, in the end of the story, trumpets this message loud and clear. When he holds up his cat and sees that she is still alive, Mr. Roth proclaims the meaning of his pet's Hebrew name, that Tikvah Means Hope!Elliot Fein teaches Jewish religious studies at the Tarbut V'Torah School in Irvine, California.

I was very impressed that the author was able to take a subject that was terrifying to adults and retell it for children in a way that was gripping and real, but not sensationalistic or horrific.The illustrations and story moved me to tears.

The book is about a family who has a cat named Tikvah. Tikvah is very small so she could get lost very easily. Then Tikvah gets lost when something bad happens to the family. Read this book to find out if the family finds Tikvah. I recomend this book to kids who like cats.

As the review states, good stories for Succoth are rare. Patricia Polacco's story illustates how grateful the holiday of Sukkot reminds us to be for the shelter over our heads. Like Polacco in the Oakland firestorm, we were in our Sukkah when the SF Bay earthquake hit in 1989...another remindeer of how ephemeral our material world can be.