G8 Summit in Italy

This week leaders of the world are meeting in L'Aquila, the capital of the earthquake devastated  region of Abruzzo, about 50 miles from Rome. When I returned to Rome from New York on June 28th there was extra security at the airport. As one can expect, there have been various demonstrations at important points in Rome. Here are some posters I go past each day as I commute to language classes. They are calling attention to the issue of world poverty.

Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy

Barak Obama, President of the United States

Lunedì Letterario

Barack Obama
Our 44th President
by Beatrice Gormley
December 2008

If you have not read Obama's Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, this children's biography of the 44th President of the United States can give you many of the factors mentioned in Barack Obama's writings that inspired him to ultimatey seek (and win) the White House. This book is written for 8 - 12 year olds and traces Obama's ancestory from Kenya and Kansas, his early life in Hawaii and Indonesia, and the educational and political career that made him the winning presidential candidate in the 2008 elections.


and to the Big Screen...

Another children's book  is opening this month as a movie. It is Cornelia Funke's INKHEART, originally written in German and immediately translated into English. Both editions were published in 2003. In the novel, Mortimer "Mo" Folchart and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie, share a passion for books. What they also share is an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when they read aloud. But there is a danger: when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages. Cornelia Funke has woven an amazing tail of mystery and suspense that can be enjoyed by adults and children.

INKHEART
by Cornelia Funke
2003