Eli on the Run: New York by Lisa Silverstein; New York: Sky Pony Press; © 2025; ISBN 9781510-783607; 42 pages; $19.99.
SAN DIEGO – Author Lisa Silverstein is the chief executive officer of Silverstein Properties, whose holdings include New York’s World Trade Center. She also is the founder of Talisa, an international jewelry company, and sits on the boards of the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
In her latest venture, she has inaugurated a series of adventure books for children aged 6 to 10, about Eli, an elementary school pupil, who likes to take summer vacations with his mom, while his dad stays on a farm where they live. Their first vacation is in New York City.
Eli has many endearing characteristics. He likes to make people smile. He likes to share, whether that be giving money to people less fortunate than he, or snacking on his favorite treat, mangos, with a new-found friend. He enjoys music and plays the piano admirably.
He also is a problem-solver. Coming accidentally across New York City’s mayor, he offers a suggestion for storing unsightly garbage until it can be collected. When he visits a snack bar, he fixes a hole in its roof.
Elie is impetuous. He likes to run and climb. His footwork while playing soccer is dazzling. Sometimes he runs too far, too fast, before his patient mother can catch up with him. She advises him: “Your head must control your legs, not the other way around.”
Eli’s personality finds full expression with visits to such New York City venues as the Oculus, a transportation hub connecting 12 subway lines at the World Trade Center; a walkway along the Hudson River; a soccer field; an Italian restaurant in the Tribeca neighborhood; and the ferry from lower New York to Governors Island, which similar to San Diego’s Liberty Station is a former military base converted to historic, cultural, recreational and commercial uses.
This book, and those that may follow in the series, can whet children’s appetites for travel experiences while reinforcing the values of kindness, tzedakah, and tikkun olam.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.