Joining other titles on Marie Curie, Gandhi, Galileo, and others, this work is an attractive and friendly resource for students. Phillips creates simple and informative text providing the basic facts on Da Vinci's life. Included are information on his birth, his illegitimacy and what that meant in fifteenth-century Italy, his apprenticeship and training as an artist, and his later life and work. Information on his early life seems more thorough than that on his later years. Although Phillips mentions that on more than one occasion Da Vinci was ahead of his times and even includes a two-page spread on the artist's legacy, the message of his true remarkableness seems lost in a laundry-list approach to his works. The strengths of this biography are its attractive illustrations, the time line of Da Vinci's life across the bottom of each page, and the simple presentation of the facts of his life. Young readers will find the book visually appealing, and those searching for factual information on Da Vinci will find it helpful. Those needing an in-depth look at his life or a real understanding of the man and his work, however, would do better to look elsewhere.-Anita Beaman.