Thanks to J. K. Rowling, many children and not so children, have become interested in fantasy genre books, and with that, to reading.
Many children from all over the globe translate her books from English to their own languages, because they can't wait for the translated editions. It's not easy that children, so used to this audio-visual society, have welcomed so well Rowling's books.
Joanne Rowling was born on 31 July of 1965 in England. Joanne's mother was very keen on reading, and Joanne inherited that hobby. Joanne not only liked reading since she was a child, she even liked to write her own stories. The first story that Joanne wrote was when she was 6 years old. It was about a rabbit and its friends.
The Rowling family moved several times. In one of them, they went to Winterbourne, where Joanne started a friendship with a neighbor called Ian Potter. She used this surname for his character Harry Potter.
One of the hardest blows in Joanne's life was the death of her mother. After a long illness that lasted for 10 years, Joanne's mother died of multiple sclerosis, without knowing the success that her daughter will have.
When her mother died, Joanne moved to Portugal. It was the year 1990. She had already graduated in Exeter University, and went to Portugal to work as an English language teacher.
She had wrote two novels, but never thought in publishing them. During a travel by train from Manchester to London, she had the idea of Harry Potter. It took her 6 years to structure the wizard's story. And this story will go in 7 books.
In Portugal she met her first husband, with whom she will have a daughter. When her daughter was born, she already had written several chapters of "Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone". They divorced and Rowling moved to Scotland, to work as teacher again.
"Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone" was rejected by many editorials, until one of them accepted. They advised her to sign the novel with initials. She used J. for her name (Joanne), K for Kathleen (the name of her grandmother) and Rowling.
A North American editor offered her the chance to publish her books in the U.S.A. He would give her some money in advance, something that was really good for Joanne, who had some economic problems.
Her book received positive critics very soon. The following books of Harry Potter ensured her success. When Harry Potter reached the cinemas, it turned into an absolute success. Everybody read her books and the merchandising of the young wizard started to be sold.
Joanne has become one of the most rich women in the world. She married again and had more children. A part of Joanne's earnings goes to investigation of multiple sclerosis, the illness that killed her mother.
The seventh book of Harry Potter is the last of his saga. With this book, she ends an important phase of her life.
Harry Potter was decisive not only for Joanne's life, but also for many of her readers, that enjoyed through the eyes of a young wizard and his friends.
To love and respect animals, you only need to know them. And when you do it, you'll discover parts of you that you thought didn't existed. Respecting animals is respecting nature and life, thus respecting oneself.
During this year I have been saving some pages of animal pics. These are the funniest. I hope you like them. When you click in a pic, you'll go to a web page that contains more. Enjoy them.
It was the day before Christmas and it was cold, very cold. In the middle of that terrible cold, there was a child who sold matches.
In her home they were very poor, and in that day she had not sold even one match box. So there was no money to bring home. She was very hungry and was very cold. So she sat in a corner, and from there she could see the Christmas lights, and hear other children's laughs while they were decorating the Christmas tree. She could also smell the turkey.
The child was there all alone, and no one cared about her. No one had noticed that there was a poor child dressed with rags, hungry and cold, in the Christmas Eve.
She was so cold that lighted a match to warm herself. But soon it went out, and she lighted another and another. Then, suddenly, her mother, that was in the Heaven for years, appeared wearing a white and beautiful dress.
The child stared her mother with emotion, and with tears in her eyes, said her: "Mom, why don't you take me with you?" And her mother smiled at her, took her and, and together, they went up through a long stairway surrounded by clouds.
The following day, some people saw that child, who sold matches. She seemed to be sleeping. But from that dream she would never wake up. In her face, there was a sweet smile.
With this famous tale by Hans Christian Andersen, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas. And remember that there are many match-sellers like the child of this tale in the world. There are many people that say they hate Christmas, and they say this when they actually don't lack of anything important.
Don't look to another side when you see people that are hungry and cold in the Christmas day. My wish is that we all could be happy and value what we have.
The North Pole is the zone of Earth where the axis of rotation is. Its contrary is the South Pole. In the North Pole is the Arctic Ocean.
The first explorer that is known to have reached the North Pole was called Robert Edwin Peary. He reached the North Pole in 1909, with his assistant Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos.
The North Pole is also known as the Arctic. The word comes from the Greek "artus", and from the Latin "ursus", and means "land of bears". Among the North Pole fauna there are polar bears, seals, and sea creatures that live under the so called "sea ice", that is another name of the Arctic Ocean. Among the vegetation can be found lichens and other small plants that are able to resist the extreme cold. In the most external zones of the North Pole, there is more presence of vegetation and fauna.
The so called "pole star" points to the North Pole, being a natural compass. In this place is where the Aurora Borealis can be more easily watched (also called Northern Lights).
The North Pole is covered by eternal snow. Some say that due to the global warm-up, this snow could disappear in 40 years. With this, the sea level all over the globe would increase. All this would produce a climate change.
Sometimes, in the North Pole can be found strange figures called Inukshuk. They symbolize the human race, and serve as a guide for the Eskimos in their travels.
Let's hope that the global warm-up can be stopped some way and these gorgeous landscapes are not lost.
