LEONARDO DA VINCI

Taking an omnium-gatherum approach, Augarde opens with supposed journal entries from an awestruck fictional ten-year-old apprentice of Leonardo’s in the 1490s, then pulls back the point of view to cover in third person the artist’s life before and after, followed by background spreads on European politics, the Renaissance, how artists of the time trained and additional looks at some of Leonardo’s art and inventions. Brown supplements sharp reproductions of several famous paintings by incorporating decent versions of his drawings into watercolor reconstructions of the artist—depicted as a handsome, dapper young man with flowing black hair and a spiky beard—in his studio, in his workshop and in the court of Duke Ludovico Sforza. There’s nothing here that can’t easily be found elsewhere, but both readers who take their history straight and those who prefer facts dished up in a fictional matrix will be equally drawn to appreciate the great artist’s unique multiplicity of talents. (Informational fiction. 11-13)