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Murdock, Catherine Gilbert

Da Vinci's Cat

288 pp. | Greenwillow | May, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-06-301525-8 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-06-301527-2 $9.99
(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. In an original combination of portal fantasy, historical fiction, and time travel with a hint of alt-history, this story, set in 1511, centers on (real-life historical figure) Federico II Gonzaga. When eleven-year-old Federico, confined to Rome and hostage to the pope, discovers a time-travel wardrobe constructed by Leonardo da Vinci, the fun begins. Bee, also eleven, has stepped into the wardrobe in present-day New Jersey and hurtled back in time five hundred years. The two kids meet and forge a common goal: to convince the painter Raphael to draw a portrait of Bee while also persuading Raphael's enemy Michelangelo to continue work on the Sistine Chapel. Bee's motives are to save an elderly friend back home; Federico's are bound up with survival and politics, but really he just wants a friend. It's an intricate plot, macramé-like in its action and logic, but as Bee says, "Just go with me. This is what happens in time travel." The narrative is rich in characters--Federico, equal parts arrogance and vulnerability; sleazy Pope Julius II; grumpy and smelly Michelangelo; thoroughly modern, unflappable Bee; Juno, the charming cat of the title. The most compelling character, however, is Renaissance Rome itself--complicated, immediate, and fully realized in sounds, smells, intrigue, squalor, brio, and opulence. Murdock is as at home in that world as she was in the Middle Ages of her Newbery Honor–winning Book of Boy (rev. 7/18).
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

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