Leonardo And The Flying Boy (Fiction)

Leonardo and the Flying Boy which is written by Laurence Anholt. This book is about a boy named Zoro, who knew painter, sculptor, musician, and scientist Leonardo Da Vinci. When Leonardo takes in a street boy, it isn’t before long that he and Zoro get into big trouble with Leonardo.

The genre of this book falls under multiple categories. This book is informational because it includes actual picture of the inventions and paintings of Leonardo’s work. Informational books tell factual information about people or events, and it uses maps, photos, or illustrations to do so. Which is actually what the author does in this book as Zoro talks about the inventions created by Leonardo Da Vinci; he talks about work that he actually has done in his lifetime. However, since the author created fictional characters (Zoro and the street boy) and a fictional story about them and Leonardo, it also falls under the genre of fiction. This is also a picture book as it includes illustrations that depict the story (from the author) also images from Leonardo.

Most of the illustrations found in this book is work created by Leonardo Da Vinci. Those that are not, are used to tell the story. The author does not use much color in his work and he changes technique from page to page. The illustrations do not take up all of the pages, some uses half the page and others are the entire page. 

So, let’s discuss the literary elements of the book. The characters in the book are Leonardo Da Vinci who always is in his studio busy at work. Zoro, the main character, is a young boy who is fascinated by Leonardo and all of his work. He follows Leonardo around hoping that he will show him what he did in his secret studio. Salai, the street boy that Leonardo takes in, is nothing but trouble. Salai bites Leonardo, steals money from him, and acts without thinking. The setting of this book takes place is not really defined, but the author describes it as being “long ago were there were no spaceships, or airplanes” (Anholt, L., 2000). The plot begins with Leonardo speaking about how one day people will fly like birds. Zoro hangs around Leonardo every day in hopes to one day see what he hid in his story. One day, Salai sneaks his self and Zoro into Leonardo studio and gets him to try to use his flying invention. The plot takes a turn for the worse when Zoro quickly realizes that the invention is not ready for use!

Educators could have children discuss something new they have learned about Leonardo Da Vinci after reading the book. The educator could then have each person create their own invention (each child could illustrate their inventions) and present them to the class. Another great activity the children could do is write a letter to either Salai or Zoro and discuss what they did wrong a better way to approach the situation that would generate better results. This activity would get students thinking about morals and values and help them brainstorm alternative ideas that respects other people and their things. This activity aligns with Saint Leos core value of respect because as children discuss a better solution to the problem they are learning how to value and respect other people’s belongings. Children also learn how to navigate through tough situations.

I personally extremely enjoyed this book. It is a fun creative way to teach children about who Leonardo Da Vinci and some of the work he has created such as the flying invention and the Mona Lisa portrait. I recommend all children interested in learning about people of the past to read this book, or even to read just for mere entertainment. Laurence Anholt is a great author and has created over 100 children’s book in the past three decades.

Anholt, L. (2000). Leonardo and the flying boy. Barron’s Educational Series: Hauppage, NY.