Bigfoot vs Yeti: a love story by James Foley

"The Bigfoot say it started when a Yeti threw a snowball across the rift. The Yetis say it started wen a Bigfoot threw some fruit across the rift."

Think about the word 'rift'. It can mean a large crack in the ground or a serious disagreement that separates individuals. In this book both meanings apply. 

Late one night two younger community members are left to guard the edge of the rift - a Bigfoot named Bevan and a Yeti named Yolanda. Yes, we have a boy and a girl. There is of course no way to cross the rift it is way too wide but "does it really go on forever?" After days of their journey Bevan and Yolanda finally come face to face and instead of fighting they help one another and "and slowly, ever so slowly, the rift began to narrow." Yes, this is a love story and the end does contain a heart-warming twist but for me the interesting part comes before this scene when it is clear there are still some community members Bigfoot and Yeti who "could neither forgive or forget." 

They were sent back "back to the village and the mist and the rift. And they're still there to this day, hurling insults into the wind."

As I was reading Bigfoot vs Yeti by James Foley I thought of these books (see below) which I used to share with my Grade Five students as part of a conflict resolution theme. Notice the title of Bigfoot vs Yeti also says - A love story. The ending reminded me of a favourite book - Clancy the Courageous Cow. 

The Two Giants

The Seed

Bigfoot vs Yeti (trailer)

Blurb: The Bigfoots say it started when a Yeti threw a snowball across the rift. The Yetis say it started when a Bigfoot threw some fruit across the rift. Who could say for sure? One night, a young Bigfoot and Yeti decide to find the end of the rift so they can finish the feud – once and for all. 

“So very clever! The buildup in this story and the unexpected (but perfect) change of colour from black and white to colour … James Foley has given us a story to remember and perhaps learn from too.“

– Dr Belle Alderman AM, Emeritus Professor of Children’s Literature, Director of the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature

This link will take you to different teachers notes for Bigfoot vs Yeti. Readings Melbourne list three reasons to read Bigfoot vs Yeti. Here is the Storylinks review.

This picture book is so clever on many levels. Big, serious themes such as conflict, culture, racism, war, history and social norms are all explored in an accessible and humorous manner but will invite deep discussion. ... The graphic novel elements, used for the most part in the book, will appeal to many readers, and the final page is a surprising, humourous and delightful ... Reading Time

Look for this wonderful book by James Foley:

Stellarphant

Trapped by Julia Lawrinson

Joe (Giuseppe) Varischetti has come with his father from Italy to a remote part of Western Australia to work at a gold mine. Joe cannot help at the mine because he is too young. His father wants him to learn English, so Joe is forced to go to school where he encounters bullying and racism. The year is 1907.  This story is presented in a diary format from 19th March to 28th March with a few flashbacks to life in Italy, the trip to Australia, and Joe's early days at school.

Torrential rain hits the area and the deep mine is flooded. Every man gets out safely except for Joe's papa Charlie (Modesto) Varischetti.

This gripping and powerful verse novel is based on the true story of an Italian migrant worker known as Charlie - who spent over 200 hours or ten days trapped under ground. Rescuers had to wear deep diving gear so at least they were able to give papa some food, clothes and a lamp but he was wet and cold and surrounded by terrified mice. I held my breath through so many scenes. It just seemed so impossible that he could be rescued. 

This is an amazing look at Australian life in the early 1900’s, the hardships, the racism and the need to persevere to make a better life for yourself. It is an intriguing and remarkable survival story, that shows how the whole state was fascinated by this event and invested in bringing Charlie back to safety. It will best suit readers who enjoy reading about historical factual events. It is an intriguing story, that is easy to read and suitable for those in upper primary and lower secondary. Lamont

I took this book on my train journey today and I read the whole book before I reached my destination. This true story is one that will completely absorb you. You can hear Julia Lawrinson talking about her book. Julia suggests ages 8-12 but I would think this book better suits a reader aged 10+. I also have a strong connection with this story because I once worked in a coal mining town and over my nine years of working in that community there were several terrible accidents - hearing sirens always put the people in the town on edge. Sadly, there was one terrible accident which took the lives of three miners. 

I am sure this book will feature in our 2026 CBCA Notable lists but will it be in Younger Readers or Older Readers or Eve Pownall? Here are the teachers notes from the publisher. 

Readings Melbourne list three reasons to read Trapped:

Three reasons to read it: 

1. All the miners escape except one, and it just so happens to be Joe’s dad. Can you imagine how scary and confusing that would be? Joe is stuck above ground, trying to figure out what happened. Why didn’t his dad come up with the others? Is he okay? And how on earth will they reach him in time? There’s a huge mystery to solve and a desperate rescue mission ahead, and you get to be part of it from the first page. You’ll be biting your nails (maybe literally!) and rooting for Joe and the rescuers every step of the way.

2. The story is inspired by something that really happened back in 1907 in a mining town called Bonnie Vale in Australia. That means the characters, the danger and the rescue are all based on real people who faced something incredibly scary. Lawrinson took this slice of Australian history and turned it into a gripping tale that makes the past feel totally alive. Reading this book isn’t just fun, it teaches you something amazing about bravery, survival and the strength of a small town during a big disaster.

3. Trapped moves fast. You can probably read it in a day or two, but the story and the feelings it gives you will stay with you long after you finish. It’s perfect for readers who like stories that grab you right away and never let go. And since it’s packed with vivid descriptions, cool historical details and an intense rescue mission, your imagination will be working overtime. When you turn the last page, you’ll be thinking about what happened long after you close the book, and maybe even looking up more about the real-life event.

Background reading:

• Western Australia Museum
• State Library of WA 4 minute video tribute
• Pearl Divers in the Goldfields
• Shire of Coolgardie
• Australasian Mine Safety Journal
• Wild - Stories from WA's past (scroll down through all the choices) - 17 minutes
• Goldfield Stories of Western Australia

On day nine, the divers gave the miner more food, shared cigarettes with him, tied a rope around his waist and started the arduous walk through waist-deep water and knee-deep sludge. At one stage, Varischetti’s mouth and nose only just cleared the water. He staggered to the surface on March 28, after 206 hours underground. He recovered to return to work underground but died of fibrosis at 57.

Tunneling to get him out or pumping out the water would have taken too long and Varischetti would have died before he could be reached. The mine inspector Joshua Crabbe had an inspired idea. He was familiar with pearl diving in the North West and made enquiries about getting divers to rescue the trapped man. Two divers (Curtis and Thomas Hearn) were found holidaying in Perth and as luck would have it they had their gear with them. A special train was organised to get them to the goldfields (taking 13 hours and 10 minutes to arrive) setting a new speed record which was to last for the next 50 years. By the time the divers had arrived Varischetti had been trapped for 3 days. The divers had no knowledge of the flooded mine and during the first attempt to reach Modesto, Curtis became entangled and was lucky to survive.

Here is an interview with Julia Lawrinson. 

Companion book:

Town by Sea (Scroll through this post)

I previously read these books by Julia Lawrinson:

Chess Nuts

City of Light

You might also have these books in your school library. I do wish the Aussie Bites, Aussie Nibbles and Aussie Chomps series books were still in print - I discovered so many book treasures in these three Australian series.

Don't Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson illustrated by Dan Santat

Why, dear reader, must you NEVER EVER trust fish?

1. They spend all their time in the water where we can’t see them.

2. Some are as big as a bus—that is not okay.

3. We don't know what they're teaching in their "schools."

4. They are likely plotting our doom.

This book starts out looking quite scientific. There is a description of the cow beside the formal illustration which leads to the conclusion that a cow is a mammal. Although, if you take a closer look at the eye of this cow he does seem to have some thing more to say perhaps. Then we read a description of a snake and conclude this is a reptile and likewise we see a small yellow bird and we know it's a bird because birds have feathers. BUT fish - no you cannot generalise about fish and so they are not to be trusted. I love the way this text persuades the reader that fish are a group of animals with lots of tricks and anomalies - gills or lungs; salt water or fresh; eggs or not; vegetarian or cannibal. There are even fish who have their own lanterns about what about seahorses - did you know they are fish too. But then we meet a little fish we can trust! or do we?

When you read this book a second or third time you might notice the huge fish trying to eat an innocent little crab - wait a minute should you wonder about the narrator of this book? 

The real slammer is the final page - please give your library group or young reading companion time to THINK about this page.

To write a successful funny picture book, you have two audiences you have to appease. You’ve got your adult gatekeepers, the ones who have the dollars in their pockets, and then you have the actual intended audience in the first place: children. Both children and adults, and I mean this truly, are terrible judges of what is funny. This is because kids and parents are not all that different. They both are easily led astray. There are many different ways to appeal to someone, and a book can certainly be funny the first time you read it… and then less and less funny after that. What keeps a book funny after multiple, maybe even hundreds, of reads? Comic timing. The art of the page turn. And the ability to make a book fun to read aloud over and over and over again. SLJ Betsy Bird (read her whole review)

A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. Kirkus Star review

Here is a video of the author reading his book. Neil Sharpson comes from Ireland. Read this terrific review from Reading bookshop in Melbourne. 

There are so many ways you could use this book with your class

• Just read it for fun - nothing more - and YES that's okay
• Read it after a unit of work on Animal classification with a younger group
• With a group of older students (Grade 4+) read it before a unit of work on Animal classification
• Use this book with primary grades to talk about persuasion
• Use this book with your Grade 5 or 6 students to talk about point of view and also the authority/reliability/trustworthiness of texts we use for research - who wrote this book? Why? Do they have an agenda? How can we check the facts presented here?

One more thing: I am SO puzzled. This is an American book - that's okay they make terrific books - but here in Australia this book in hardcover only costs AUS$20 and even less from chain stores - again that's terrific BUT if this book can be made available for such a great price WHY oh WHY do I investigate so many other US Picture books and then despair when I see them listed for AUS$35-AUS$55!

Companion books:

Except Antarctica

Other books illustrated by Dan Santat:

The Foal in the Wire by Robbie Coburn

Sam lives on a farm. His father is a horse trainer. There has been a dreadful accident and Sam's brother has died aged only seventeen. The accident happened three years ago but Sam still has nightmares, and his mother and father's relationship has descended into fights, arguments and screaming matches. Sam tries to stay invisible. 

Julia lives next door. Her father has driven her mother away after one beating too many. He is a violent man who is fueled by alcohol. 

A foal becomes caught in the wire of a fence. Sam hardly knows Julia but together they rescue and care for the young foal and over the days and weeks their own gentle relationship begins. Sam tells Julia about his brother and also about his one friend - a boy from school who is actually not a friend - he is a dreadful bully but Sam clings to this dysfunctional relationship. But then comes the day Alex verbally attacks Julia and Sam fights back. As I reader I cheered when this toxic relationship ended. 

Julia also confides in Sam. She desperately misses her mother and is afraid of the violence from her father. Then Julia cannot take it anymore and she swallows some pills. The authorities swoop in and she moves away to live with relatives. Sam loves Julia and now she has left. 

This is important - do not let the cover trick you. Yes, this is a book about a horse and yes, it is a 'thin' book with only 117 pages BUT this book contains topics only suitable for readers aged 15+. Hopefully bookshops won't 'accidently' put this one on their junior shelves. Oh, and YES, the cover by Tannya Harricks is truly wonderful so do put this book into your high school library. Young Adult fans of verse novels and of books filled with raw emotions will devour this one.

Did you ever see the movie of Forest Gump - do you remember Jenny the young girl next door. Do you remember the dreadful violence she was subjected to by her father - that is a part of this story too. Look at the labels I have assigned to this post - violence, death, accidents ...

The Foal in the Wire is certain to be listed as a 2026 CBCA Notable. 

This is a short book, but it deals principally with big questions and sometimes intense, formative experiences. Verse novels are deceptive in what would appear to be limited space for establishing depth in a story and characters. As both a lover of poetry and young adult literature, I find verse to be the perfect form to capture a story, particularly in dealing with difficult and confronting subjects. When writing for a young adult audience, free verse perfectly conveys a character’s internal language without the addition of unnecessary explanation. Each word must be chosen carefully, and no language wasted. The impact of poetry can be remarkably strong and effective in conveying emotion, while also adhering to brevity and trusting the reader to visualise and fill in the empty space on the page.~ Robbie Coburn 

In this piece for Paperbark Words Robbie Coburn talks about his poetry and about writing this book. Megan Daley and Your Kids Next read talk about The Foal in the wire here (listen from 2.50). You can hear Megan reading the blurb. Megan likens the language choices and expressive writing in this book to Sonya Hartnett and John Marsden - that's a big call but I do agree. 

Read this interview with Just Kids Lit. See inside The Foal in the wire and read some endorsements on the publisher page. And here is an interview with Hachette. And book club notes and Scholastic notes. 

Verse novels grapple with topics like trauma and loss in different ways than prose. It’s a little more subdued and evocative, with serious undertones that show that everyone lives a different lives. They can bring emotions that teens may be feeling to light, and give them space to talk about them safely. It gives them a voice to explore these feelings; explore the things teens might experience that they don’t think they can talk about with anyone else. This makes them powerful vehicles for discussion as well. ... This is the power of verse novels – they play with emotions and pull at the heartstrings. They invest in characters emotionally. The brevity makes it work well – the details aren’t needed, because you can fill them in yourself. The Book Muse

Here is the poem that made me shudder:

my only friend at school, Alex,

always makes fun of our house

and the way it doesn't look like

other people's. ...

he makes fun of my clothes

and the food mum makes me

that I bring to school for lunch.

he tells me I should be embarrassed

that my parents are poot

and says we are bogans

for racing horses.

he says my brother

is lucky he died

so he doesn't

have to be embarrassed

by me and my family anymore.

When we flew away by Alice Hoffman

Bookseller blurb: Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired readers for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius. With the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family's life is turned inside out, blow by blow, restriction by restriction. Prejudice, loss, and terror run rampant, and Anne is forced to bear witness as ordinary people become monsters, and children and families are caught up in the inescapable tide of violence. In the midst of impossible danger, Anne, audacious and creative and fearless, discovers who she truly is. With a wisdom far beyond her years, she will become a writer who will go on to change the world as we know it. 

I have a few dilemmas about recommending this book. Yes, it is an engrossing read although at times it felt a little repetitive. But who should read this book? I think you do need to be familiar and even better to have recently read The Diary of Anne Frank. But then do fans of The Diary of Anne Frank want a book like this which, even though it has been researched, it is a work of imagination - imagining the Frank family and especially Anne in the years before the family went into hiding. I think one of my conclusions is this book should only be read after you have met Anne Frank through her diary and if you are curious about life in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation and of course you want to know a little more about the Frank family - their life and in the case of Anne her deepest thoughts.

Historical information woven into the narrative serves as time stamps as the Franks move ever closer to their life in hiding. This context is helpful for readers and offers a startling reminder of the terror that took over Europe during World War II. Ultimately, Hoffman portrays Anne and Margot as the children they truly were, gripped with fear and telling each other stories for comfort but still eager to go for bike rides, celebrate birthdays, and try to live their lives fully. This novel serves as an insightful companion for Frank’s own diary or as a stand-alone entry into a terrifying and unforgivable time in history. Kirkus

There is a QR code on this Scholastic flyer which takes you to the first chapter. Listen to an audio sample. Here are a set of questions to use with a book group. Read more plot details here. When we flew away is published in cooperation with The Anne Frank House. You can see more Adult andYA books by Alice Hoffman here. I previously read and enjoyed Night Bird. 

Use my label Anne Frank to discover other books I have shared about Anne Frank. Companion book:

(Sorry, this is now out of print)

Here is the Kirkus review

Not Nothing Gayle Forman

Before I start, I want to make it clear. He did something bad. Truly bad. I don’t want you to think I’m sidestepping that, or excusing it, or even forgiving it; it’s not for me to forgive, anyhow. But I’m telling you the story so you understand how he got where he did and how I got where I did and how both of us learned to rise to the occasion of our lives.

Alex, aged 12, has done something truly awful. The judge is giving him one more chance or one more opportunity. Alex hates that word and it's one the adults seem to use way too often. Now he finds himself at the Shady Glen retirement home: The Shady Glen residents were the living waiting to die. Places like Shady Glen are antechambers of death, the last stop where you wait for the Last Stop.

Because, honestly, no one had asked him if he wanted to be here. No one had asked him if he wanted another stupid opportunity. But, remembering what the judge had said about him throwing away chances ...

Alex is assigned work in the care home. He finds the residents weird and scary but even worse there is a young girl named Maya Jade also aged 12 who is working there - not as a community service order but as a volunteer - and she is bossy and opinionated and very annoying. The facility goes into lock down and Alex is sent to deliver meals to the residents. He meets Joseph “Josey” Kravitz aged 107 AND we meet him too because this book uses that appealing plot style of alternating voices so we can hear what Alex thinks and hear Josey. This is lucky in two ways because Josey is nonverbal (at least at the beginning of the book) and Josey is able to share the things he really 'sees' about Alex. Josey also opens up to Alex and over the following months he shares his own story - a harrowing story of love, loss and the holocaust.

Alex is suffering at home. He has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle. They are cold, disinterested and show Alex no love or affection. So 'home' is a misery. 

He lived on a lumpy couch with an aunt and uncle who did not want him. He had a judge who had warned him of last chances. He might go to juvie. And his mom… He hadn’t seen her in almost a year. He didn’t know if or when he would ever see her again. How could it get more permanently bad than this?

And the new school is also terrible. 'They' decide Alex is failing and so he is given special tutoring in maths. Alex is good at maths but he has totally switched off because everything in his life is so broken. He is so angry about the tutoring and the tutor. 

This book was published in 2024 and so here in Australia the hardcover edition is priced way beyond a school library budget. I read my copy on a Kindle but hopefully a paperback will arrive eventually. Not Nothing has won a Banks Street Award - Josette Frank Award 2025.  The Josette Frank Award for a work of fiction of outstanding literary merit for young readers in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally.

There is a raw honesty in this story - both in the story from Josey and from Alex. I cannot tell you exactly what Alex did but even though it is dreadful Gayle Forman has crafted a story that builds our empathy. I highly recommend Not Nothing for readers aged 12+.

Best-selling award winner Forman interweaves the tales carefully, with striking language and depth of feeling, allowing readers to understand the characters’ changing perspectives as they learn more about themselves and open up to people around them, many of whom become advocates and friends. Powerful, heartbreaking, and hopeful. Kirkus Star review

Book seller blurb: Alex is twelve, and he did something very, very bad. A judge sentences him to spend his summer volunteering at a retirement home where he's bossed around by an annoying and self-important do-gooder named Maya-Jade. He hasn't seen his mom in a year, his aunt and uncle don't want him, and Shady Glen's geriatric residents seem like zombies to him. Josey is 107 and ready for his life to be over. He has evaded death many times, having survived ghettos, dragnets, and a concentration camp--all thanks to the heroism of a woman named Olka and his own ability to sew. But now he spends his days in room 206 at Shady Glen, refusing to speak and waiting (and waiting and waiting) to die. Until Alex knocks on Josey's door...and Josey begins to tell Alex his story. As Alex comes back again and again to hear more, an unlikely bond grows between them. Soon a new possibility opens up for Alex: Can he rise to the occasion of his life, even if it means confronting the worst thing that he's ever done?

Here are a few text quotes:

For three days the boy cleaned banisters, safety rails, doorknobs, coffee tables, more doorknobs, Rummikub sets, book spines, outdoor tables, indoor tables, outdoor chairs, indoor chairs. The bleach stung his eyes, scraped his throat, and stole his appetite. The baloney sandwich his aunt packed him went uneaten. He would’ve thrown it away except he couldn’t bring himself to throw away food.

But then, as the months dragged on, his mom started to go to one of her bad places. He could recognize the signs as easily as the freckles across the bridge of her nose. He’d wake up in the morning and find her in the same chair she’d been in when he’d gone to bed, the TV on the same channel, the dinner he’d left out for her cold on the table. She didn’t cook any meals or eat the ones he put together.

“You shouldn’t separate them, because they love each other,” he continued in a halting voice. ...  So many people in Shady Glen had lost the people they loved, because their spouses had died or their children had moved away. When the people you loved left, that love remained, floating around, desperate for a place to go. And if it didn’t find a place to go… bad things happened. Love turned into anger, fear, hate. This was something the boy at twelve knew all too well. How did the grown-ups not see this?

“I’ll tell you why!” The words felt like a rocket countdown. Ten, nine, eight… “Because everyone who has promised me an opportunity has just made things worse. When I told the people at my old school about me and my mom, they all congratulated me on doing the right thing. Because now they had an opportunity to get us some help. I thought they meant food.” His voice began to crack, but the rocket was lifting off now, and there was no turning back. “But you know what they did? They made me go live with strangers and dragged my mom to a hospital and told her she’d have to get better if she wanted to be my mom. But if you know my mom like I do, you know she can’t stand to be stuck in one place. It’s why she moved so much. It’s why during the lockdown she got so much worse.”

I have also read this story where an elderly character also shares their holocaust experience. This one is for a slightly young audience - 10+.

The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicolas Day illustrated by Brett Helquist

Who stole the Mona Lisa?  This book is a fantastic mystery/detective story. By the end you might discover the answer to this age old question. 

Publisher blurb: On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting? Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa—the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all. Here is a middle-grade nonfiction, with black-and-white illustrations by Brett Helquist throughout, written at the pace of a thriller, shot through with stories of crime and celebrity, genius and beauty.

Here is a detailed summary of the plot.

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of the writing in this book - it is funny at times, and shocking and interesting and even matter of fact. 

None of them saw the man leave the closet. But if any had, they might not have noticed. He was wearing a white smock, the uniform of the Louvre maintenance workers. It was a suit of invisibility. He was too normal to be noticed.

The Mona Lisa was gone for over twenty-four hours before anyone realized it was gone. If not for the persistence of Louis Béroud, it might have been days. It might have been a week. The theft of the Mona Lisa—the art heist of the century—was discovered because Louis Béroud got bored. The Louvre was lucky.

Everyone in Paris could tell you it was obvious what had happened. It was just that everyone told you something different was obvious. It was blackmail, obviously. It was sabotage, obviously. It was the work of a madman, obviously. It was the work of an extremely wealthy man, obviously.

I especially love the way the narrative flipped between scenes and characters and also back to the time of Leonardo himself. 

Back in Florence, he hears from a silk merchant who wants a portrait of his wife. And in 1503, Leonardo, after turning down far more prestigious commissions, after expressing little interest in painting at all, says yes to Francesco del Giocondo. No one knows why. If Leonardo met Lisa before he took the commission—we don’t know whether he did—maybe he saw something in her. Something that took him beyond financial calculations. Or maybe not. Why this woman? It ranks among the greatest mysteries in the history of art.

I read The Mona Lisa Vanishes last year (on my Kindle) while traveling. Over the coming days and weeks I am catching up on all the books I still need to share. I highly recommend The Mona Lisa Vanishes for readers aged 11+ and then you should plan a trip to an art gallery or even better time in Paris to see the actual painting and all the other treasures in the Louvre. The narrative style combined with all the actual facts of the case plus lots of background information about Leonardo make this book an engrossing one to read.  

Awards: The Mona Lisa Vanishes won the Robert F. Sibert Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction. And A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year • A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year • A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year • A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Best Book of the Year • Booklist “Top of the list—Youth Nonfiction” 2023 • NPR "Books We Love" 2023 • New York Public Library Best Book of 2023 • Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2023 • The Week Junior “The Fifty Books Kids Love Most”.

A multistranded yarn skillfully laid out in broad, light brush strokes ... Kirkus Star review

Colby Sharp talks about this book - I agree with so many of his thoughts - so many things you will learn about this painting and its rise to fame and the myriad of characters involved in the theft. 

I am quoting the entire School Library Journal review:

Most readers will not know that the Mona Lisa painting was once stolen from its home at the Louvre. This nonfiction middle grade book contextualizes this historic moment with world events. The publicity that surrounded the theft only added to the painting’s fame. Readers will learn of the heist, discover new connections to other artists, and find out fascinating details and facts of the long-ago crime. Moving back and forth between the caper and the life of Leonardo da Vinci, the text takes readers around the world figuratively and literally. Day writes in a pleasant conversational style, addressing readers directly. The story moves along at a reasonable pace and includes many historical figures; the abundance of cultural references makes the story challenging, but interesting.

Take a look at my previous post about Leonardo's Horse. You might like to explore these books too: