Around a few entries in Leonardo's notebooks Konigsburg constructs the character of his young apprentice Salai and fabricates an answer to two questions. She begins, "Why, people ask, why did Leonardo da Vinci choose to paint the portrait of the second wife of an unimportant Florentine merchant? . . . Why, they ask, why?" But it's the second question, which surely fewer "people ask," that gets a fuller answer here: "Why, people ask, why did Leonardo da Vinci put up with this liar, this thief, this Salai? Why for so long?. . . Why?" In the words of Beatrice, the plain but inwardly beautiful young duchess who shares the boy's sense of fun and mischief, Salai represents the one wild element—irreverent, unserious—that the too self-conscious Leonardo needs for greatness. And when, at the very end, Mr. Giaconda brings his wife to the absent artist's studio, Salai recognizes her as that same "unimportant, importantly unserious wild thing" whose portrait would not only recall the now dead Beatrice but would also be the perfect insult to Beatrice's shallow, arrogant sister Isabella who was begging to be painted herself. The Mona Lisa then is, at least in part, Salai's revenge on a silly snob; the master himself is remote throughout the story though through his assistant's eyes we are shown a number of his projects. We also see him on occasion throw back his head and laugh at Salai's dismissal of men of learning and station—though the boy's "those guys. . ." and (of the duke) "who does he think he is" seem fresh and spunky only in contrast with the complacently polished speech employed by everyone else including the author. At this civilized midcult level Konigsburg is successful, mixing palatable art history with mildly ingenious conjecture, and she probably should not be faulted for not having a Salai of her own.
Pub Date: Sept. 10, 1975
ISBN: 1416903429
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
