(3) 4-6 Thirteen-year-old Christa can't wait to spend Christmas abroad with her parents--until they tell her they are divorcing. On the trip with just her mom, Christa finds comfort in some unexpected packages from her dad and a friendship with a cute boy. Christa's complicated emotions about her changing family feel genuine; her adventures in Florence, Paris, and London will appeal to tweens with wanderlust.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(3) K-3 Blending art, history, and fantasy, this story starts in WWII Florence, where Renato's museum-conservator father is building enclosures to protect sculptures from German soldiers. Renato loves sculpture, too, especially a stone lion in the Piazza della Signoria; the lion carries the boy on a dream journey before the family flees Italy. Impressionistic watercolors highlight Florence's art, architecture, and landscapes. A fascinating author's note is appended.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) YA Elliott's well-researched novel focuses on Ginevra de' Benci's late teenage years. Newly married to a disinterested older husband, tempted by a Venetian diplomat, and chosen to model for Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra is immersed in Renaissance politics, philosophy, and art. The deliberately paced story of a real woman and expansive detailing of Florence at its height of influence will interest dedicated historical-fiction readers.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(2) YA Living in Florence while her historian father researches the city's devastating 1966 flood, seventeen-year-old Nadia develops a rare neurological disorder that inhibits language, drives compulsions, and increases creativity. Nadia's first-person narrative is fittingly hallucinatory; events become clearer when best friend Maggie narrates. While the flood backstory highlights appropriate themes of loss and chaos, the city's rebirth evokes miracles and salvation.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2015

(3) K-3 Illustrated by John Shelley. Young Michelangelo "saw David--his David" inside a huge block of marble that had troubled Florence's artists for decades. The illustrations' cartoonish aspects--a worn-out Michelangelo chipping away; townspeople positioned like a Greek chorus speculating on his progress--complement the lighthearted text, which only turns serious as Sutcliffe describes the completed David's beauty and grandeur. Appended with an informative author's note. Bib.

Reviewer: Betty Carter

(2) 4-6 In her first novel, picture-book veteran Hughes tells a story of 1940s wartime. While thirteen-year-old Paolo finds respite in his bicycle rides through German-occupied Florence, he hopes that they might also be his ticket of admission to the resistance activities of the partisans--including his father--hidden around the city. The sense of danger is everywhere, allying us with the characters' efforts to survive and subvert their conquerors.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2013

(2) YA In Florence for the summer, May is visited repeatedly by Cristofana, a sinister, inscrutable girl from the past who resembles May enough to be her identical twin. Cristofana has found a portal to the present day and would like nothing more than to switch places with May permanently. Writing in the third-person present tense, Noyes creates an eerie mood and limns a hauntingly vivid landscape.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2013

(4) YA Secrets of the Eternal Rose series. Cass (Venom) is warned that there are vampires on the loose in Florence. Still, when her fiancé is arrested, she makes her way there in search of information that may free him, encountering intrigue, danger, and an unlikely ally. Cass's character is still wavering between actor and conveniently accidental spectator, though she grows less passive by this historical-mystery installment's end.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(3) YA An imagined explanation of Michelangelo's construction of the David statue is woven here through the eyes of Gabriele, the young man who serves as the model. Unfamiliar with city life, Gabriele explains much about the artistic trends, political factions, and scandals of Florence. The text is very well researched, with many facts and details inserted into the story. Glos.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Donald Hendricks. Cruel Duke Cosimo's gardener, Antonio, risks his life to steal a sprig of jasmine for his love, Donatella. McAlister's story, with its elements of bravery, trickery, and love, reads like a classic fairy tale; in a welcome twist, a woman (Donatella) saves the day. Hendricks's delicate-lined colored-pencil and black marker illustrations show a great deal of emotion. Bib.

Reviewer: Miriam Steinberg-Egeth

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Pau Estrada. When eccentric Florentine goldsmith Filippo "Pippo" Brunelleschi wins a contest to design a dome for the city's cathedral, he gets stuck working with the self-important sculptor Lorenzo. Based on a real fifteenth-century event, the story, played here as gentle farce, doesn't justify the lengthy text. The handsome art, like the writing, is unstinting with architectural details. Bib.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) YA Flora is the least valued child in one of the most powerful families in Renaissance Florence. When her father's scheme to challenge the Medicis goes wrong, Flora's relative invisibility and determination allow her to escape the ensuing bloodbath. Beaufrand's historical romance details, with sometimes surprising vigor, a world shaped by both a taste for gruesome torture and Botticelli's exquisite artwork.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Laura Fernandez & Rick Jacobson. A new apprentice to Michelangelo, Marco is undermined and embarrassed by a jealous senior apprentice. But when summoned to Rome to paint the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo selects Marco to accompany him because of Marco's paint-making skills and his loyalty. The long but well-told story helps to illuminate the methods of a master artist; handsome paintings ably convey setting and mood.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) 1-3 Magic Tree House series. Illustrated by Sal Murdocca. Seeking help in their search for the secret to happiness, Jack and Annie are sent back in time five hundred years to spend a day with Leonardo da Vinci in Florence, Italy. There they sit in on a portrait session for the Mona Lisa and even attempt flying. Illustrated with many black-and-white drawings, the fast-paced story has some suspense.

Reviewer: Barbara Barstow

(4) 1-3 Leonardo da Vinci as inventor is the focus of this time-travel fantasy picture book. When modern-day mouse Providence Traveler builds one of Leonardo's lost inventions, she and her friends travel back to 1503. Along the way, they learn about Leonardo and about everyday life in Renaissance Florence. Cartoonish illustrations accompany the contrived plot that nevertheless manages to be painlessly educational.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(3) 4-6 Rulers and Their Times series. Divided into three parts, each book in this series provides a short biography of its title subject; examines everyday life, including housing, food, clothing, education, and recreation; and then use primary documents to illustrate Renaissance or Victorian thought. Color reproductions of art and manuscripts accompany the text, which is spaciously designed with plenty of white space. Bib., glos., ind. [Review covers these Rulers and Their Times titles: Lorenzo De' Medici and Renaissance Italy and Queen Victoria and Nineteenth-Century England.]

Reviewer: Jeannine M. Chapman

(4) 4-6 Journey to the Past series. Each of the historical locales featured in this series is given a guidebook-like treatment, with preliminary pages providing basic information on topics such as where to sleep at night and what type of currency to use. Illustrated with mediocre art, double-page spreads introduce various neighborhoods, workplaces, and festivals. The final section includes photographs of some of these areas today. Bib., glos., ind. [Review covers these Journey to the Past titles: Classical Athens, Imperial Rome, Ancient Egypt, Mayan Tikal, Medieval Paris, Florence in the 1400s.]

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) K-3 After an unusual snowstorm in Florence, Sandro, a young page in the Medici palace, searches for his father to ask him about the surprise Piero de' Medici is planning. Sandro finally finds his father with Michelangelo, who is carving the surprise: a huge snowman. Based on a real incident, the story and watercolor illustrations give the flavor of Florence in 1494.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley