Italy

Materials from Italy

Papa Gatto: An Italian Fairy Tale

The feline advisor to the prince, Papa Gatto, learns not to judge by appearances when he hires the beautiful but neglectful Sophia to take care of his kittens. Sophia’s plain but loving stepsister Beatrice proves herself a more worthy caretaker.

Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci

In 1781, Thomas Paine came up with a model for a single-span bridge; in 1887, Adolf Eugen Fick made the first pair of contact lenses; and in 1907, Paul Cornu built the first helicopter. But Leonardo da Vinci thought of all these ideas more than five hundred years ago! At once an artist, inventor, engineer, and scientist, da Vinci wrote and drew detailed descriptions of what would later become hang gliders, automobiles, robots, and much more.

What Came First?

When was the Earth created and how? And the most pressing question of all — how did humans come to be? What Came First? is a funny but scientifically sound introduction to evolution. Learn about the Big Bang, where it all started, and read vivid descriptions of a melting pot full of microscopic organisms — the very beginnings of life — to the first oceanic life forms and, with the formation of the continents, the first land mammals, all the way through to the evolution of the plant, animal, and human life that surrounds us today.

Tommaso and the Missing Line

The strange thing happens—the day his line goes missing—Tommaso knows what he must do: find it. It’s the line on the drawing he puts in his pocket every day, the line he drew of the hill by his nonna’s house, and he knows he must find that very one. It suddenly dawns on Tommaso whom to ask: Nonna. Nonna will know.

Stravaganza: City of Secrets

Set in Talia, a parallel-world version of Italy, the Stravaganza series combines Renaissance court intrigue with time travel, subterfuge, romance, and revenge.  In this new story arc, we meet Matt, a painfully dyslexic and insecure boy (despite a beautiful and clever girlfriend!). Matt has just discovered that he is a Stravagante – someone capable of traveling between two worlds. A leather-bound book transports Matt from our world to Talia, where he meets Luciano.  Luciano has killed the head of the powerful di Chimici family in a duel, and has gone into hiding. The di Chimici are on the verge of making a terrifying breakthrough into our world, and it will fall to Matt, Luciano, and the other Stravaganti to stop them.

The Juliet Club

Italy . . . Shakespeare . . . but no romance?

Kate Sanderson inherited her good sense from her mother, a disciplined law professor, and her admiration for the Bard from her father, a passionate Shakespeare scholar. When she gets dumped, out of the blue, for the Practically Perfect Ashley Lawson, she vows never to fall in love again. From now on she will control her own destiny, and every decision she makes will be highly reasoned and rational. She thinks Shakespeare would have approved.

So when she is accepted to a summer Shakespeare symposium in Verona, Italy, Kate sees it as the ideal way to get over her heartbreak once and for all. She’ll lose herself in her studies, explore ancient architecture, and eat plenty of pasta and gelato. (Plus, she’ll be getting college credit for it—another goal accomplished!) But can even completely logical Kate resist the romance of living in a beautiful villa in the city where those star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet met and died for each other? Especially when the other Shakespeare Scholars—in particular Giacomo, with his tousled brown hair, expressive dark eyes, and charming ways—try hard to break her protective shell?

“In fair Verona, where we lay our scene . . . ”