Middle Grade Sidekick Short Review: The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity (2023) by Nicholas Day

cover image of The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, A Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day, published by Random House Studio, 2023.

The Basics

Page Length: 288

Audiobook Length: ~5 hours

Grade Reading Level: 5+

Target Audience Age: 10-14

Goodreads Score: 4.06 out of 5

Common Sense Media Score: 10+

Buy it HERE

Setting: Early 20th century Paris and Renaissance Italy

Genre: Middle Grade Nonfiction

Topics: Renaissance, Art, Theft, Museums, Detectives, Investigations, Fame, Reputation

Plot: Ever wondered why the Mona Lisa is so famous? Why is it one of the only paintings that virtually everyone in the world recognizes? What makes it so special? Why are there movies, songs, and romances devoted to it?

This book explains why. The Mona Lisa was once just another painting that museum visitors walked past without much notice—until it was stolen in 1911. Its theft from the Louvre and the mystery surrounding it turned the painting into a global celebrity. Rumors spread, new investigative techniques emerged, and a new kind of criminal archetype was created, all of which contributed to the Mona Lisa’s rise to fame.

The book also gives an inside look at the artist himself. Leonardo da Vinci was a unique Renaissance figure, known as a brilliant but neglectful genius. He was incredibly talented, yet famous for leaving commissions unfinished, getting bored easily, and pursuing unusual hobbies and passions. Readers also learn about the creation of the Mona Lisa and the mystery behind the woman in the painting. Her identity and the story of the painting’s creation are just as intriguing as the artist himself. By the end of the book, you’ll understand the painting’s history, its fame, and why people still wait in line for hours just to catch a glimpse of it.

You might like this book if you like:

• Visiting museums

• Drawing, painting, or sketching

• Solving puzzles/detective shows and movies

• Documentaries or podcasts

• Books like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Masterpiece, Chasing Vermeer, Art Heist: 50 Artworks You Will Never See

• Movies like The Monuments Men, Night at the Museum, National Treasure, The Da Vinci Code, the Ocean's Eleven series

• Shows like Colossal Mysteries, Silverpoint, Art Detectives

  
  

Other books written by this author: A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, A Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

Content

• Language: very little

• Sex/Romance: not really. It is mentioned that Da Vinci is the illegitimate son of a married man and a peasant. It's also mentioned that young female teenagers are married off very early in Renaissance Italy

• Violence/Scariness: there are brief mentions of historical violence (assassinations, torture, war, hangings) but, there aren't graphic or detailed. The book also mentions Da Vinci's obsession with doing autopsies. There is also a male artist who died by suicide and blamed the Mona Lisa in his suicide note.

• Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: none

  
  

Book Talk Read Aloud Section

*What is a book talk? (Watch a how to video here. Read my blog post here)

If you have the physical book, read pages 1-3

If you don't, read the same pages in the Kindle reading sample here.