Leonardo da Vinci | 
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| Creator: Diane Stanley
Publisher: HarperCollins
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.33
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 163959
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Pages: 48
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 9.1 x 0.3
ISBN: 0688161553
Dewey Decimal Number: 709.2
EAN: 9780688161552
ASIN: 0688161553
Publication Date: September 30, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: GREAT BUY!Brand New From US Distributor! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3,500,000 BOOKS SOLD!!! OVER ~ 675,000 FEEDBACKS ~ POSTED!!!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Older children will certainly appreciate the wealth of information in this complete and fascinating biography of Leonardo da Vinci. Illustrated in an Old Masters style, the book follows the life of da Vinci from birth to death and gives a detailed account of his extraordinary achievements, not only in his painting but also as an engineer, scientist, and inventor who is centuries ahead of his time. The treatment of da Vinci's famous notebooks usefully conveys the power of the man's imagination. His practice of writing in a backward script from right to left, requiring a mirror to decipher it, will intrigue children. (The dust jacket bears such lettering on the back, which should immediately prompt a run to the bathroom mirror.) An accomplished and engaging biography for children.
Product Description
BPAn unwanted child. A brilliant genius./P/BPBorn in 1452 to a peasant woman and a country gentleman, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most amazing people who ever lived. He grew up to be a great painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, and inventor./PPAs a boy, Leonardo was apprenticed to a famous artist. But he quickly became more skillful than his teacher, and his passionate interests went far beyond art. Fascinated with the human body, he carried out his own experiments in secret. He filled thousands of pages with plans for incredible inventions including a submarine, an air-cooling system, "glasses to see the moon large," and even a flying machine!/PPIn this magnificent addition to a distinguished series that includes ICleopatra, Joan of Arc,/I and IBard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, /Iaward-winning author-artist Diane Stanley blends wonderful storytelling with gorgeous illustrations to convey the/PPA 1996 ALA Notable BookBRA 1997 IBoston Globe-Horn Book/I Honor Book for NonfictionBRA 1997 Orbis Pictus AwardBRA 1996 IPublishers Weekly/I Best Books AwardBR/P P00-01 Land of Enchantment Book Award Masterlist (Gr. 3-6) /P
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Great book for kids August 19, 2008
Amy H. Fawcett (Boston, MA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this for a summer reading project for my daughter and she loved it from the first sentence. Great book.
www.lazyreaders.com book club recommendation for April 2006 June 27, 2006
Danny Brassell (Redondo Beach, CA)
I get this feeling that interest in Leonardo da Vinci is going to really increase next month (there's this little film called "The Da Vinci Code" coming out, based on a modestly-selling book). If you are too lazy to read an adult biography on Leonardo (and I am), this book provides an excellent glimpse into da Vinci's life and artwork. Kids love the pictures, and I love subversively introducing students to paintings (even though art is no longer taught in most schools). For more cool adult, young adult and children's book recommendations (under 250 pages), visit www.lazyreaders.com.
 His name is Leo January 30, 2004
E. R. Bird (Manhattan, NY)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Leonardo Da Vinci is, in many ways, the perfect subject for a children's biography. Above and beyond his myriad of accomplishments (scientist, inventor, artist) his life is one of adventure and interest. The illegitimate son of a leading man of Vinci, Leonardo went into the artistic life precisely because he was considered too base for a, "noble profession".br brThis book is a combination of good artistry and confounding problems. On the one hand, Stanley has drawn beautiful accompanying pictures for each point in Leonardo's life. On the other hand, these pictures sometimes take liberties with the few details of the artist's life we know of. When the text states that Leonardo, "found a loving friend in his young uncle Francesco", the accompanying picture shows the boy piggyback on his uncle. It would be nice if such facts were given appropriate footnotes, but all sources are listed in the end of the book without any references to pages. Also, the aging of Leonardo is a little haphazard. One moment he's a young man writing a letter. The next moment he's bearded and about to slice up a corpse. The Duchy of Milan is described as having black hair and dark skin, but appears to be more of a slightly tan Italian. These are tiny details, but they distract from an otherwise interesting text.pUndoubtedly, the actual drawings and sketches Leonardo made in his lifetime are some of the best parts of this book. It would have been nice if Stanley had included more of them in the story. Leonardo's paintings are nicely presented, but they're usually seen from a distance. At no point do we get a detailed and close look at any art that Leonardo created. Finally, a timeline would have been helpful in this story, but it has not been included.pNone of this is to say that Stanley hasn't taken a difficult subject and made an interesting book out of it. The final product is a bit too advanced for those children accustomed to reading picture books, but older kids may shy away from the type of book they would consider "babyish". Open minded children may be the best audience for this piece of non-fiction. For those of you who would like something a little more in depth and interesting, I recommend "Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer". In interesting book that suffers from an array of tiny nagging problems.
Leonard Da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance Man April 27, 2002
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
The cover of this excellent juvenile biography of Leonardo Da Vinci is quite interesting because it shows him as a young man in front of the background from his most famous painting, the "Mona Lisa." I saw a story once that compared the face of the "Mona Lisa" with the famous red ink drawing of Da Vinci as an old man, which did size comparisons and argued they were the same. In other words, the "Mona Lisa" is really a self-portrait of Da Vinci. This makes a bit of sense since the artist worked on it for years, obviously with the benefit of a model. Diane Stanley's cover painting, intentionally or not, references this intriguing hypothesis. pStanley does some fascinating things with the art throughout this book. She puts reproductions of Da Vinci's actual paintings into her own works and includes various drawings by Da Vinci to complement her text. Young readers will learn about the highlights of Da Vinci's life, both as an artist and as an inventor. Consequently, they will see not only the painting of "The Last Supper" but the flying machine he designed. In a fascinating postscript Stanley details what happened to the grave of Da Vinci and what few of his paintings remain. Stanley provides an excellent introduction to the life of the original Renaissance Man.
A typical Diane Stanley Book! April 12, 2002
For those who do not yet know, Diane Stanley writes the best kid-level biographies out there, and Leonardo da Vinci is no exception. She carefully traces his life from birth (including alluding to the legitamacy question) to death. Worked into the illustrations are many of Leonardo's works (so that you needn't buy a separate book for your child to appreciate them). A wonderful book that should be mandatory reading!
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