The Last Notebook of Leonardo

November 1, 2010

Gr 4-6-This is a funny, unique, wacky story. Ten-year-old Jem's dad is a scientist who idolizes Leonardo da Vinci. He has also happily turned himself into a seven-foot-tall, five-foot-wide, incredibly hairy orangutan. Carl can still talk in his normal voice, but the change appears to be permanent. He is fired from his job and kicked out of restaurants, and finally the landlord orders the pair from their no-pets apartment. Jem and Carl quickly rally with a plan to visit da Vinci's grave. According to Carl's calculations, Lenny's final resting place is in America. Thus begins their madcap journey from Manhattan through the Catskills, living out of a wagon and camping alongside snowy roads. The characters are wonderfully developed, especially the lively Native American woman who stops to pick up Jem and Carl. The father-son relationship is warm and realistically portrayed. By the end of the tale, readers can understand how Jem so readily accepts his dad's orangutan state. Humorous accounts of Carl trying to eat or wear human clothes add more spice to this already charming read. Think Barbara Park's The Kid in the Red Jacket (Yearling, 1988) meets Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth (Random, 1961). Stick drawings are scattered throughout. The novel would be fun to pair with a nonfiction book about da Vinci, or the story could be used as a jumping-off point for a creative writing assignment. This is a delightful book that readers will be unable to put down.-Julie Shatterly, W.A. Bess Elementary School, Gastonia, NC

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