A charming and very well packaged book of Leonardo da Vinci inventions, produced for younger readers (8 years plus). The text is written as if by da Vinci himself, though the odd anachronism creeps in (the worst one is referring to his well-known armoured fighting vehicle as a 'tank', which is the one word he would never have used as that was a 1916 code word adopted at the factory where the first tanks were built, specifically to conceal their nature and purpose). But this is nit-picking on my part.

The most spectacular part of the book are the pop-up cardboard models, a number of which can be made to move (though the flying machine takes a bit of figuring out, and one - the self-steering cart for stage spectaculars) didn't seem to work because of a tiny surfeit of glue in the wrong place). Again, these are minor issues.

Design and choice of typeface are excellently done, replicating the look and feel of da Vinci's original notes without going to the extreme of replicating his mirror writing, though that might have intrigued some of the more intelligent of the readership. The whole thing is a delight, and certainly kept me amused for quite a little while! ( )