BOOKS
3C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015
WHAT ARE THEY READING?
Sharing makes holiday brighter
Children’s booN
starts out sad,
ends in joy
By TERRI
SCHLICHENMEYER
Special to The Daily
Astorian
M
ama says you’d
better share your
toys.
But you don’t mind; it’s
Christmas and as long as
other Nids are careful, they
can play with your new
gifts, too. Sharing is one
of the best things about the
holidays, as you Nnow, and
in the new booN “Miracle
on 133rd Street” by Sonia
Manzano, illustrated by
Marjorie Priceman, it could
maNe your holiday brighter.
It was Christmastime,
and Jose’s family had the
“tiniest Christmas tree
ever.” There was hardly
room for all the family’s
ornaments. Their apartment
was small, too, and Mami
said the oven was too tiny
for the Christmas roast,
which made Papi sad.
Sonia
Manzano
He wished they’d never
left Puerto Rico. Everything
was bigger there.
But how do you cooN a
great big roast? Jose had an
idea, Papi put the roast in a
great big box, and they set
out for Regular Ray’s Piz-
zeria.
They were barely out the
door, when their neighbor,
Mrs. Whitman, complained
about the noise. On the third
floor, Mr. and Mrs. Santia-
go mentioned that their chil-
dren weren’t coming to visit
this Christmas. Mr. FranNlin
thought there were burglars
in the building, and he re-
fused to come out of his
apartment. The WozensNys
on the second floor were
worried about money, Ms.
Simon was yelling about
shopping, and the DiPalma
Nids were maNing a huge
racNet. Even the customers
at Happy Full Tummy Food
Store seemed very unhappy.
Three
hours
later,
though, the great big roast
had been cooNed in a great
big pizza oven and the scent
was “most glorious … so
garlicNy and olive oily and
delicious …” It smelled so
yummy that Jose felt liNe he
was floating on its perfect,
tasty goodness.
“Feliz Navidad,” said
Mr. Ray as Jose and Papi
headed home — but not be-
fore they invited Mr. Ray
to share their meal. They
invited the WozensNys on
the second floor, and they
asNed Mr. FranNlin to leave
his apartment. Mrs. Whit-
man came, too, and so did
the Santiagos. Each person
brought a little something to
Jose’s apartment.
And that was where a
BOOK REVIEW
“Miracle on 133rd
Street,” by Sonia Manza-
no, illustrated by Marjorie
Priceman
Simon & Schuster, 48
pages, 2015
$17.99
miracle occurred …
The first guest arrives
at your holiday celebra-
tion. Then the second,
fifth, eighth, and 10th, and
your child might wonder
if there’ll be enough for
this crowd. The answer, of
course, is yes and “Miracle
on 133rd Street” will show
him how.
There’s always room for
one more, as author and
Emmy Award-winning ac-
tress Manzano proves in
this sweet little story that
starts out sad and ends in
such joy that you won’t be
able to stop smiling. The
ingenuity of Jose and his
papi boost this tale in a per-
fect way, and I loved how
Manzano subtly portrays a
multi-level, multi-cultured
apartment building and the
“Miracle on 133rd Street”
people inside it. Add in
magical, sparNling pictures
by Priceman and you’ve got
an instant holiday classic.
Though this booN is
mainly for 4-to-8-year-olds,
I thinN slightly younger
children might sit still for
it. One read-through or bed-
time read-aloud, and your
Nids will agree that “Mir-
acle on 133rd Street” is a
good story to share.
Terri Schlichenmeyer has
been reading since she was
3 years old and she nev-
er goes anywhere without
a book. She lives on a hill
in Wisconsin with two dogs
and 14,000 books.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Many of the old glass tiles are broken, chipped, or simply missing from the sidewalk outside of several buildings in downtown Astoria.
Glass tiles: City ordinance limits
Boyd’s creativity in the process
Continued from Page 1C
Sidewalk politics
Boyd said she has been
limited in her creativity
by a city ordinance requir-
ing replacement tiles to be
historically accurate. Jeff
FREE
PUBLISHED THE FIRST FRIDAY
OF EACH MONTH
January 2015
ess
Chronicling the Joy of Busin
Daly, a native Astorian,
photographer, ¿ lmmaNer
and local organizer, said
the ordinance was created
in response to a plan he had
about four years ago to re-
place the tiles for free and
light up city streets.
in the Columbia-Pacific
Region
striverbusinessjournal
crbizjournal.com • facebook.com/coa
Volume 10 • Issue 1
stry spo
allenges
Inside: Indu
copes with ch
Shellfish farm
an conditions
oce
nging
s optimistic despite cha
tlight:
Taylor remain
NEWS
County makes a splash
PacifIc
in the pot biz page 10
Daly said he had gath-
ered a group of high school
students and tooN a census
of the state of vault lights in
Astoria. The plan, he said,
was to place a layer of Lex-
an polycarbonate plastic in
the holes of missing tiles.
The remaining space would
then be ¿ lled with leftover
glass “teardrops” from Fern-
hill Glass Studios and do-
nated resin from Englund
Marine & Industrial Supply
to create a smooth transition
with the sidewalN.
Daly, who has worNed on
underground lighting at the
Hotel Elliott, said he imag-
ined underground lights
coming out of the sidewalNs
through the fog at night. “It
would looN so awesome, the
lit street of Astoria, ” he said.
Now inserted into
The Daily Astorian and
Chinook Observer
For more information call 503-325-3211
NEWS
Seaside Muffler and Off-Road
21
revs up its reputation page
BOAT OF THE MONTH
The Sadie out of South Bend,
Wash. page 24
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