THE CHRISTMAS ROCKET

Dino, the small son of an Italian potter, looks bleakly toward Christmas, for his father's beautiful ceramics are not selling well and Dino will have no shoes to wear as he carries his Christmas candle through the Birthday service. But it is more than shoes little Dino wants. He would like a donkey to take the place of Marin- Louisa who died, and what he would like most is a Christmas rocket. When Dino, in a last attempt to sell his father's products, thrown down by a motor scooter and breaks the precious pottery, he despairs. But a wealthy stranger, whom he escorts through the church, turns out to be a special Christmas blessing, for an representative of shops in Northern Italy, he orders enough crockery to afford Dino's family a donkey, shoes and -- the biggest rocket ever. Arthur Marokvin's illustrations convey much of the feeling of an Italian village in this plausible and dramatic modern miracle story.