Renaissance Books

Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself series)

Maxine Anderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Hands on History 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

We are homeschoolers using this book in part of a unit on Inventors. My eight year old is able to read and enjoy the history behind the different inventions. I thought it would just be a "how to" book, but we are both really enjoying the well written historical information in this book. It really makes Leonardo and the world he lived in come alive. I like to just browse through the book and look at all of Leonardo's sketches as well.

The pictures and instructions are fairly easy to follow. The inventions do use common items, but we don't always have the right "common" items at the right times. We have modified most of the directions to use what we actually have in our house. Today we wanted to make the camera obscura, but we just threw out our last empty Pringles can... guess we'll be eating lots of chips in the next week :)

Editorial Review:

From armored tanks and gliders to "plastic glass" and drawing machines, this interactive book explores the incredible mind of Leonardo da Vinci through hands-on building projects and activities. Most of Leonardo's inventions were never made in his lifetime and remained sketches in his famous notebooks; kids examine some of these original sketches and learn about the models he made of his inventions. From there they delve into detailed step-by-step instructions, diagrams, and templates for each project, which are interspersed with historical facts, biographical anecdotes, and trivia. Most of the building can be done using simple household supplies: construction paper, tape, markers, glue, cardboard tubes, aluminum foil, and cardboard boxes. Background about the Renaissance as a period of remarkable achievement in art and science appears throughout the book.

Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? (Who Was...?)

Roberta Edwards

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

i can't wait to get the whole series 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the best biographies aimed at children that I have ever read. The main narrative is interspersed with sidebars about different historical explanations about relevant topics such as the invention of paper, ranking of workers within the guild system, Copernicus, The illustrations by True Kelley are light-hearted, accessible, and they carry the text. How else do you explain a painting?

Great subject for a children book. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great subject for a children book. I got this series of books for my daughter and she really enjoyes reading them. Great read and educational too.

Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The friends at my school read Who Was? Books too. so, i decided to read them and they're SO COOL! I Own 12 Who Was? Books and have read 18. Who Was? Books are so popular at my school. My friend that i was talking about read all the Who Was? Books and has 16.

Michelangelo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the greatest artists of all time, was not exactly a noble and humble man. Irritable, arrogant, and impatient, his perfectionism and expectations drove away many potential friends, and even provoked one would-be friend to hit him in the nose, crushing it "like a biscuit." However, what's truly important for us today is that this man ultimately became an artistic genius, mastering the three arts of the Renaissance: sculpture, painting, and architecture. From his early years, when he created the Pieta (at age 25), to his 40 years of tormented work on a monumental tomb for Pope Julius II, to his greatest masterpiece, the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo astounded people with his almost otherworldly talent.

Diane Stanley's well-researched, vivid narrative captures the life of the creator of some of the world's most beautiful, heart-wrenching works of art. Her illustrations are fantastically elaborate and include details of many of Michelangelo's sculptures and paintings. Michelangelo is a perfect introduction to art and art history, with plenty of compelling background information about the Renaissance and life in 15th and 16th century Italy. Stanley has written many other award-winning picture-book biographies, including Leonardo da Vinci and Cleopatra. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation

Robert G. Shearer

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Where are the women? 4 out of 5 stars.
21 of 38 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent research tool for high schoolers in history, religion, humanities, art history or world history classes. It is a large, workbook-sized soft cover book. I ordered it for our church library. Illustrations are all in black and white. It was interesting to read as an adult, too, o because it is a good refresher or review of the history of the era. Although each chapter covers a person, the history of the whole book is kept intact. I would recommend it to public school high school teachers for use as a text. However, I have a comment. Where are the WOMEN of the Renaissance and Reformation? What about Catherine de Medici, Katherine von Bora, Joan of Arc, Hildegard von Bingen, and Artimisia Gentileschi, the great female Renaissance painter (check Vasari's Lives of the Painters.) I would like to see women included in any revisions, with the book called, "Famous PEOPLE of the Renaissance and Reformation." Do some digging and don't follow the typical history that men haver written. There is "herstory", too, and it should be researched and brought once again to life. Just because women may not have been as famous as the men, they did wield considerable power and were just as spiritual and talented.

Editorial Review:

Covers the period in western European history from 1300-1550 and includes chapters on Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dürer, Erasmus, Wyclif, Hus, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Tyndale and Knox. Includes over 75 b&w images of the men, women and works of art that distinguish this period of history. 29 chapters, 192 pages. Text written for 5th grade and up.

Good Queen Bess : The Story of Elizabeth I of England

Diane Stanley, Peter Vennema

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

She was a queen whose strong will, shrewd diplomacy, religious toleranceand great love for her subjects won the hearts of her people and the admiration of her enemies.

Elizabeth was born into an age of religious strife, in which plots and factions were everywhere and private beliefs could be punished by death. When she became queen, her counselors urged her to marry quickly and turn the responsibilities of governing over to her husband, But she outwitted them by stalling, changing her mind; and playing one side against another, as she steered her country to the glorious era of peace and security that would be called the Elizabethan Age.

Elizabeth's forceful personality, colorful court, and devoted subjects come vividly to life in this stellar picture-book biography. When it was first published, Good Queen Bess was named a Notable Book in the Field of Social Studies, an American Library Association Notable Book, a Booklist Editors' Choice, an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, and an IRA Teachers' Choice.

In this welcome reissue, celebrated author and illustrator Diane Stanley and her husband, Peter Vennema, paint an impressive portrait of the remarkable queen who loved her people so dearly and ruled them so well.

The Renaissance (History Opens Windows)

Jane Shuter

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Editorial Review:

How did people in the Renaissance live? What were their social, economic, political, and cultural lives like? How did their lives values and attitudes help shape our world? This title answers these questions and more with informative text, colorful photographs and original source materials, and clear maps and diagrams to show readers what life was like in ancient civilizations.

You Wouldn't Want To Be A Crusader!: A War You'd Rather Not Fight (You Wouldn't Want to...)

Fiona MacDonald

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Red Hugh: Prince of Donegal (Living History Library (Warsaw, N.D.).)

Robert T. Reilly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An incredible adventure story that actually happened! 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This book is extremely well written. It's filled with wit, adventure, and courageous characters. It's about a teen-age prince who goes on an incredible journey from a prison in Dublin where he was being held, to his home in Donegal, to save his province from Engish envaders.Set in a time of war and hatred, this book is so action-packed it's hard to believe it's a true story!

Adventure, suspense, a rollicking story! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

What a good adventure! The true story of Hugh O'Donnell, who is kidnapped by the English at 15 and must escape home to his castle by the sea, is full of fun and excitement. Hugh makes a great hero; he's funny and brash and eager for a fight and he acts like a teenager. He loves his parents and his home and he carries himself with courage and with honor. As far as I know, the history is sound. It is a fun way to learn a little of Irish history with an action hero who really existed.

Editorial Review:

In 1587, teenaged Hugh Roe O'Donnell, son of the rulers of Donegal, is seized by the English and imprisoned in Dublin Castle for three years before escaping to join in the struggle to rid Ireland of English rule.

You Wouldn't Want to Explore With Sir Francis Drake!: A Pirate You'd Rather Not Know (You Wouldn't Want to...)

David Stewart, David Salariya

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Terrific book!! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book was so entertaining even I enjoyed reading it. It blended real facts with funny tidbits of the life and times of Sir Francis Drake. If your child has an explorer report to do and chooses Drake, by all means get this book!!

World History Biographies: Galileo: The Genius Who Faced the Inquisition (NG World History Biographies)

Philip Steele

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Renaissance

Editorial Review:

Galileo made the first effective use of the refracting telescope to discover important new facts about astronomy. His observations led him to support Copernicus's claim that Earth and the other planets circled the sun. This conflicted with the teachings of the Catholic Church, and brought Galileo before the judges of the Inquisition. He spent his final years under house arrest.

Galileo's genius lay in the way he approached scientific problems. He reduced problems to simple terms on the basis of experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed and resolved the problems according to simple mathematical descriptions, thus opening the way for the development of modern mathematical physics.