About the Author

Diane Stanely is the author and illustrator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Cup and the Crown; The Princess of Cortova; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American Book Award; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; The Chosen Prince; and Joplin, Wishing.

Ms. Stanley has written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales, The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter, and an award-winning series of picture book biographies. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can visit her online at www.dianestanley.com.

Diane Stanely is the author and illustrator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Cup and the Crown; The Princess of Cortova; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American Book Award; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; The Chosen Prince; and Joplin, Wishing.

Ms. Stanley has written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales, The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter, and an award-winning series of picture book biographies. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can visit her online at www.dianestanley.com.

Reviews

"A virtuosic work." -- "Publishers Weekly""This is the best of the many children's books on Leonardo." -- "ALA Booklist""A stunning account. A first class production in every way."-- "The New York Times Book Review"

Adding this Renaissance genius to the illustrious lineup of individuals whose lives she and Peter Vennema have chronicled, among them Cleopatra, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, Stanley produces her most stunning pictorial biography to date. Drawing from a range of sources, including her subject's extensive notebooks, Stanley's conversational narrative describes Leonardo da Vinci's astoundingly far-reaching and varied achievements. Young readers will come to appreciate both da Vinci's universally renowned accomplishments as a painter and the breadth of his scientific experimentation and research. While her text is thoroughly intriguing, even more impressive is the artistic challenge Stanley takes on and triumphantly meets: her paintings not only portray the period particulars and likenesses of da Vinci, his patrons and colleagues, but successfully incorporate, in seamless collages, miniature reproductions of such celebrated masterpieces as The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. These exquisite reproductions, as well as sepia-toned spot art taken from da Vinci's notebooks, sit uncommonly well within Stanley's own paintings, educating the reader about da Vinci's masterpieces as a natural part of the visual storytelling. A virtuosic work. Ages 7-up. (Sept.)