This is the perfect book to give to a sweet relative – for Christmas or a birthday or just because. Mr. Miracle is charming, easy to read, and a little bit hokey. Macomber gives us Christmas lights and a new outlook, after showing how Addie and Erich dug themselves into darkness.
The book is straightforward – no unexpected twists at the end – and direct in its message and moral. What makes Mr. Miracle stand out is its parallels with Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Addie sees how she and others CAN change and grow.
A beautiful and subtle theme in Mr. Miracle is the idea that although you can’t change someone else (Addie! You can’t change Erich), you can change yourself. And when you change yourself, you change the dynamic you have with others. Sometimes that’s enough to spur another person to change, or to make you realize the other person is just fine as they are.
-calliope