Charles Tazewell (1900–1972)

I first read this book many years ago. I first saw this book performed as a play at another church in my area during childhood. While I like the story, it is not particularly reader-friendly for children. The illustrations in the 1946 edition are a bit dated. I would definitely suggest finding a more up-to-date version, as I know they exist. It would be a good read-aloud book. It's the story of a four and a half-year-old angel who creates quite the stir among the angels. Another angel is sent to earth to fetch a box the boy left under his bed, and the littlest angel is transformed. The Christ child is about to be born in Bethlehem, and all the angels prepare their gifts. What shall the littlest angel give the Christ child?… (mais)

Adults steeped in Christianity commonly regard this children's book with affection and fond remembrance. They might do well to step back from the tale and consider an alternative perspective borne of a careful reading.

The story stars a dead child who goes to heaven where he is bored and miserable. He is sad and lonely, and no one comforts him. His sniffles bother the celestial gatekeeper, who seems not to have encountered a child before. In fact, there are no other children to play with. In this bizarre afterlife, heaven appears as a place of strict order, characterized by schedule and silence. The story even refers to the fact that the little boy angel needs to be “disciplined".

Finding nothing to do in Heaven, the little boy angel pleads for something from his old bedroom to play with -- a box located under his old bed, filled with things like dead butterflies and his dog's collar. (Dogs, it appears do not go to heaven, and butterflies are not resurrected).

As it turns out, this is all happening more than 2000 years ago, at the time of the first Xmas. The adult angels -- all Jewish one presumes (since Christianity has not been invented) -- are collecting gifts to give to the Christ child. Everyone has rich gifts to give, since wealth matters in heaven. The sad little angel boy has nothing that compares, and offers his box of things. And lo and behold, the giant hand of the anthropomorphic deity choses the Little Angel's little box over the other gifts, places it in the "sky" (sic) and turns it into the Star of Bethlehem. And so (as one online commentator noted), the only thing that brought the poor child happiness is taken away -- God being the opposite of Santa Claus.

What a depressing tale this is. It's hard to imagine a child finding enjoyment in anticipating such a bizarre and lonely afterlife. The message it offers to such a child is rather different than his or her parents imagine.… (mais)