Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions you can build yourself
Nonfiction
For ages 9 to and up
Nomad Press, 2006 ISBN: 978-0974934426
Leonardo da Vinci was not typical of his times. Indeed his ideas were often so far ahead of his times that it would be hundreds of years before anyone fully understood some of his ideas and inventions. He did live during the relatively enlightened Renaissance period but even this era of advancement could not quite keep up with Leonardo's quick and ever questioning mind. Leonardo spent much of his adult life working on a series of notebooks in which he wrote down his ideas and drew hundreds of illustrations. It is on the pages of the precious documents that we find his remarkable pictures of some of his inventions.
In this very special book the author gives the reader a real feel for Leonardo da Vinci's world, his work, and his life. She also explores some of the ideas and inventions that Leonardo investigated in his notebooks. She begins by describing what Leonardo thought and then she suggests how the reader can explore Leonardo's ideas by creating diagrams, drawings, models, and more. Readers will learn how to make plastic, invisible ink, a camera obscura, a hygrometer, walk-on-water shoes, and much more. This book gives the reader an opportunity to practically walk in the shoes of Leonardo and to explore his ideas, his theories, his experiments, and his methods.
The hands-on approach used in this superbly crafted book will help young people see that history does not have to be boring. Readers will come to appreciate how truly extraordinary Leonardo da Vinci was and to appreciate his work and his genius.
Carefully written instructions with accompanying diagrams make it easy for the reader to complete the projects in the book. Packed with photographs, illustrations, quotes, and interesting anecdotes, this is truly unique book.
