When she attends the funeral of one of Florence's most powerful men, Lorenzo de' Medici, she meets Leonardo da Vinci, who declares that one day, when she is ready, he will paint her. Set in Renaissance Florence, it follows Elisabetta's life up to the moment she models for da Vinci's painting, and suggests the secret behind her famous smile.Īs a budding only daughter of a wealthy silk merchant in Renaissance Italy, Elisabetta finds herself on the brink of an inevitable arranged marriage, but she longs for love. Some historical figures enter the plot, including Leonardo da Vinci and members of the famous Medici family. Press, 1996), Humour in sign languages: The linguistic underpinnings (with Rachel Sutton-Spence) (Dublin: Trinity Press, 2009), and L'animale parlante ('The speaking animal') (2004), written with Marina Nespor, along with dozens of articles in the scholarly journals.The Smile (2008) is a Young Adult novel by Donna Jo Napoli that details a slice of the life of Monna Elisabetta, better known as the Mona Lisa.

Press, 1993), Linguistics: An introduction (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979), Syntax: Theory and Problems (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Her publications in linguistics include Syntactic argumentation (with Emily Rando). Napoli has won numerous awards for her work, including the Golden Kite Award given by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (for Stones in Water, and honor book Breath), the Sydney Taylor Award given by the Association of Jewish Libraries (for Stones in Water, and, honor book, The King of Mulberry Street and the Parents' Choice Gold Award (for Alligator Bayou and Silver awards for North and The King of Mulberry Street). Other children's stories are historical fiction based in Italy, including Daughter of Venice, For the Love of Venice, and The Smile. Many of her children's books are retellings of fairy tales, including The Magic Circle, Crazy Jack, Spinners, Zel, Breath, Bound, Beast, and The Wager for older children, and The Prince of the Pond, Ugly, and Mogo the Third Warthog for younger children. Her children's books have been translated into many languages, including different sign languages. She has worked in syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical and comparative linguistics, Romance studies, structure of American Sign Language, poetics, writing for ESL students, and mathematical and linguistic analysis of folk dance. Fantasy for young people, children's books, picture books

The smile book donna jo napoli