Book Review:
This book begins with a timeline to give you an idea of some of
the major events involving Gutenberg, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli,
Francois I, Magellan, Luther and Copernicus that occured around
Leonardo da Vinci's lifetime. We are also given a history of Leonardo's
early years in the chapter, A Boy in Vinci. We learn what he did
with his time as a young child, how he was educated and when he
began to record the world around him by sketching with chalk on
paper.
In the chapter, The Young Apprentice, we learn that Leonardo left
the small village of Vinci and went to live in Florence with his
father after his grandfather died. His father decides that he must
find a trade so he takes him to the bottega (studio) of the artist
Andrea del Verrocchio where he becomes an apprentice. This book
is full of interesting stories about da Vinci like the fact that
he couldn't become a notary like his father because his mother and
father didn't marry. Illegitimate children couldn't become doctors
or lawyers, attend university or join most guilds.
There are extra articles in this book that don't deal directly
with Leonardo's but with issues related to his art, life and the
times in which he lived. The topic of these articles include; Pigments
and Paint (a mini-article about the components of the paints used
during Leonardo's lifetime), Perspective, The Renaissance, Pinpointing
the Vanishing Point, The Plague, Italy's Kingdoms and City-States,
Art Detectives, Simple Machines, and Who Was Mona Lisa? Another
article, Flight gives us an example of how Leonardo's ideas and
life work have affected the future. He designed a flying machine
and centuries later airplanes were invented.
All the activities in this book relate to da Vinci's life in some
way whether they are about his methods of observation, techniques
he used or a recipe for food he liked. There is an activity called
Mental Exercises to help you understand how he was able to study
the world around him. This is just one of the activities that represent
the way Leonardo worked and thought. Another example is the activity,
Measuring Up which you can use to test one of his theories to see
if it works (i.e., Is our ear as long as our nose?).
I like that all the sections in this book include examples of Leonardo's
artwork, either in their entirety or as a background to the activity
pages so you get a good idea of the types of sketches and paintings
he did during his lifetime. Leonardo da Vinci for kids is a good
read, letting you see a side of the artist beyond the paintings
and the sketches. I couldn't put it down because the stories about
his life and times were so interesting. |
