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:

Solomon Macaroni and the Vampire Vacation by Ashleigh Barton illustrated by Sarah Davis

Bookseller blurb: It's holiday time for Solomon and his cousins. Uncle Dracula has planned a surprise visit to Paris. There will be fine food, fabulous fashion and fang-tastic art. When the cousins become captivated by a magical Mona Lisa, Solomon gets a bad feeling they're up to something. Again. Soon they have accidentally unleashed mayhem on the city of love and Uncle Dracula is too busy testing his renewed vampire skills to notice. Can Solomon and Lucy save the day before it's too late?

You might like to begin by reading my post about the first book from this series. While it is not essential to read the first book in order to understand this second, I think it would help you make more sense of the main characters especially Solomon, his cousin Lucy, and Uncle Dracula.

Solomon Macaroni and the Vampire Vacation will be released tomorrow (3rd October, 2023) - I received an advance copy just over a week ago - thanks UQP. When you read this book it might be good to have a map of Paris and perhaps grab some books about the Mona Lisa. Paris itself feels someone like an extra character in this book. As a way to introduce this book to your students you could discuss why the vampire children want to steal the Mona Lisa - I am sure no one will guess the real reason or the consequences of their heist. 

Here are some fiction and nonfiction books about the Mona Lisa:

I enjoyed the first book in this series about the Titanic. 

This new instalment was published early in 2023

Read more about this on the publisher page. Published in 2023.

I like the way Sarah Davis has illustrated these two covers and alliteration of the titles is fun. There are some very funny moments in this second book. Here are a few examples:

• Uncle Dracula (Dad) shops on EeeeBay. Oh and he keeps saying he slept like a dog when it should be, as Lucy tries to tell him, slept like a log.
• The cranky jetsetter taxi driver, Walter, is a wonderful character (but his taxi is not big enough for the whole family they should have booked a maxi-maxi taxi). I love his taxi rules.
• Leaving for Paris they accidentally leave the youngest child at home - poor Elvis - rather like a scene from the movie Home Alone. The group were halfway across Austria when dad remembered what/who was missing.
• On their previous holiday they stayed at the Fangi-la in the Maldives.
• The getaway car, after they steal the Mona Lisa, is a hot pink, glittery stretch limousine convertible. "Thyme's face ... lit up like it was Halloween. 'A limo!' she exclaimed. 'I've been asking Dad for a limo for centuries. He says they're for show-offs and hens' parties."
• Vincenzo, their own driver from Transylvania, has come to Paris to help but when the magic is unleashed Lucy explains bad things happened to his family in the past - something to do with magic beans and a scam.
• In the library Le Jardin des Livres you will discover a whole new meaning to the idea of speed reading plus the Brewey Decimal System invented by Tabith Brew. Now used in most libraries in the world!

Solomon Macroni and the Vampire Vacation is a long book with 287 pages of fairly small print but the mayhem of the plot means the story just races along to a very satisfying conclusion. 

Here the picture books by Ashleigh Barton: