Monday, I posted about the gift my mother gave me by surrounding me with books from an early age, and promoting reading in so many different ways. I mentioned the many chapter books my family has enjoyed together, and that as homeschoolers, we love to look for “read alouds” that bring history and people to life.

Our giveaway today is one such book! Leonardo the Florentine is a great piece of historical fiction. The story is set in Florence, Italy, and focuses on Leonardo da Vinci’s time as a young man during his apprenticeship in the shop of Verocchio. This book brings to life the city of Florence, da Vinci himself, and his contemporaries, including the Medici brothers.

The author of Leonardo the Florentine is Catherine McGrew Jaime, a homeschooling mom of 12 children, and long time lover of books and history. On her website she says, “I love to write!  I love to research!  And I love to teach!  Writing books gives me an opportunity to combine all those interests, and to share my work with others.” And it shows! As with most of this author’s books and projects, this book was born out of her passion for Leonardo da Vinci, and numerous studies she has done with her own children and classes she has taught for other homeschoolers.

So who do I recommend this book for? The short answer is, everyone. If you are interested in history, art, da Vinci, or just like a good read, check this book out for yourself! The book is classified as Young Adult, and is not a difficult read, so your older independent readers can read this themselves. For younger children, this is still a great read aloud. I read it aloud to my 7 and 5 year old (and the 2 year old tagged along!), and they both really enjoyed it. The 7 year old got more out of it, but they both requested to read it and looked forward to our times in its pages! I also often heard, “One more chapter, Mommy!”

In addition to the fun we had while we were reading the book, it sparked a lot of interest for both of my girls in Leonardo da Vinci, and in his artwork. I didn’t do a lot to go along with this book. We read the book, a chapter or so a day, just like a regular story, and we colored a few coloring pages while we read, but they still retained a lot. Leonardo the Florentine could easily serve as the springboard to a great unit study of Leonardo da Vinci if you so desired, though!

And speaking of go-alongs, the author has several great Leonardo da Vinci go-alongs, and has generously agreed to let all our readers have one of them as a free gift. Just click on this link to download Leonardo da Vinci: Inventions Mini Unit Study from CurrClick, absolutely free! I don’t know about you, but I love free!

Enter below for your own copy of Leonardo the Florentine! And speaking of entering, if you haven’t entered the pillowcase dress giveaway from last week, it ends tonight!

*Giveaway ends Thursday July 14th at 11:00 pm CST
*Contest is Open to Anyone in the Continental USA
*Fill Out the Google Doc Form Below
*Winner Will Be Chosen with Random.org after 11:00 pm CST on July 7th, 2011
*Comments left on the blog will NOT be included for the Giveaway- you MUST use the Google Doc to enter!

Click Here to Enter!

Blessings and Happy Reading,

(Disclaimer: Catherine Jaime happens to be my aunt. I would think she was completely great either way, and that did not influence my review of her product.)