Big Anthony

Big Anthony, well-meaning but inattentive, journeys around Italy causing one problem after another, before meeting Strega Nona.

When Big Anthony borrows Strega Nona's magic ring to turn himself into a handsome man, he gets more trouble than fun.

Honesty, respect, responsibility, compassion, self-discipline and perseverance-the building blocks of character are the topics of this book. Introduce the theme with a great book and reinforce it with a variety of meaningful and creative follow-up activities.

For decades, research on children's literacy has been dominated by questions of how children learn to read. Especially among Anglophone scholars, cognitive and psycholinguistic research on reading has been the only approach to studying written language education. Echoing this, debates on methods of teaching children to read have long dominated the educational scene. This book presents an alternative view. In recent years, writing has emerged as a central aspect of becoming literate. Research in cognitive psychology has shown that writing is a highly complex activity involving a degree of planning unknown in everyday conversational uses of language. At the same time, developmental studies have revealed that when young children are asked to "write," they show a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of the representational constraints of alphabetic writing systems. They show this understanding long before they can read conventional writing on their own. The rich structure of meanings involved in the word text provided the glue that brought together a group of scholars from several disciplines in an international workshop held in Rome. Reflecting the state of the field at the time, the majority of the workshop participants were scholars working in languages other than English, especially the romance languages. Their work mirrors a linguistic and psychological research tradition that Anglophone scholars knew little of until recently. This volume provides English-language readers with updated versions of the papers presented at the meeting. The topics discussed at the workshop are represented in the chapters as follows: * the relationship between acquisition of language and familiarity with written texts; * the reciprocal "permeability" between spoken and written language; * the initial phases of text construction by children; and * the educational conditions that facilitate written language acquisition and writing practice.

This true crime biography by a Mafia insider chronicles the hair-raising life of the notorious Colombo crime family boss. In the golden age of organized crime, Carmine “The Snake” Persico was the King of the Streets. The defacto boss of the Colombo Mafia family since the 1970s, he oversaw major rackets and legendary gang wars. Suspected of committing scores of murders and ordering hundreds more, he was sentenced to 139 years in federal prison. Yet even behind bars he continued to exert power over a vast criminal empire with the help of his brother, Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico. In this blistering street-level account, “Mafia survivor” Frank Dimatteo teams up with veteran true-crime author Michael Benson to reveal the inside story of Carmine’s criminal career. Growing up on the mean streets of Brooklyn, Carmine got an early start as the leader of the fearsome Garfield Boys. He was recruited into the Profaci and Colombo crime families before his bloody betrayal of the Gallo brothers. This volume captures all the drama of Carmine’s infamous exploits—including his role in the ambush-slaying of Albert Anastasia—and the many courtroom trials where witnesses against him came down with sudden cases of amnesia.

When Childhood relationships are carried on into adulthood, sometimes its hard to remember why you were friends in the first place. Especially when there are secrets that not everyone knows about each other. Daniel considers himself a true friend to all, but he senses that there are times when Stacy is more receptive to Big Anthony. Even though they have all known each other since they were in grade school, Big Anthony and Stacy always have that certain connection that no one else can figure out. And with everything else going on in Daniels life with his on-again/off-again girlfriend Melissa, he feels like his opportunities for happiness are progressing slower than normal. Stacy has never been a true believer in a lifetime of happiness. Her views and ideals on relationships stem from an abusive home environment that she just cannot let go of. Men are disposable and love never means what people want it to mean. The only steady relationships she has had are her close nit group of friends. But only one of them truly knows all of the demons that haunt her. Big Anthony has been her closest confidant since high school, the only one she trusts with all of her past. But when she, Big Anthony and the rest of their friends are confronted with a devastating loss, and unforeseen circumstances, it takes all of Stacys courage, will and faith to see how much they all can overcome and move on from the past to the future.

Big Anthony, well-meaning but inattentive, journeys around Italy causing one problem after another, before meeting Strega Nona.