THE ADVENTURES OF LEONARDO THE DRONE

A young girl discovers how a drone can enhance her photography skills in this series-starting picture book by debut author Purdy and illustrator Rodella-Purdy (The Little Gray Squirrel, 2019, etc.).

Leah is frustrated that she can’t seem to win the monthly photo contest at her local library. She loves finding new and different angles to capture images. Inspired by flying birds, she attempts to take pictures of things from above, using a number of tools with underwhelming results, before she buys a drone. She names it “Leonardo,” after Leonardo da Vinci, and experiments with flying it until she becomes confident in her skills. She then selects her favorite new drone-assisted photo for the contest. Readers will be unsurprised by Leah’s victory, but parents are more likely to appreciate how Leah devotes herself to practicing her craft. Purdy’s present-tense narration lends immediacy to Leah’s experiments, and the straightforward vocabulary and sentence structure will encourage independent reading. Rodella-Purdy’s cartoonlike digital images effectively capture Leah’s inventive problem-solving paired with her successful and failed photos. QR codes (not tested) offer readers a chance to see more drone photos online. A text introduction to drone technology is included at the end of the book.

An engaging, well-illustrated invitation to look at the world from a different—and higher—angle.