Neo Leo, Now and Ben

Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci,
Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin
by Gene Barretta

Musician, Writer, Inventor, Statesman, Cartoonist, Postmaster, Philosopher, Diplomat... Dr.Benjamin Franklin wore many hats and wore them well. Now & Ben shows us many of Ben Franklin's creations that are still in use today, more than two centuries later.

With colorful and humorous illustrations, each double page spread shows Now... and Ben... featuring one (or more) of Dr.Franklin's creations. For instance:

Now... bifocals are very common. Bifocals combine two sets of lenses into one pair of glasses. The bottom lens helps see the near, and the top lens helps see far.


Ben...originally designed bifocals for himself after he grew tired of switching between two glasses.

Of course, there is the iconic page mentioning Benjamin Franklin's famous experiment when he attached a metal wire to the top of a kite to gather electricity from storm cloud.

From inventing the grabber for grabbing out-of-reach things and the flippers for swimming; the benefits of citrus diet to prevent scurvy; measuring and charting the Gulf Stream currents; to the glass harmonica and the writing chair, Benjamin Franklin's many creations are very much in use today, although not in its original form.

I learnt a lot from this book, and so did the 7 year old. I did not know that Benjamin Franklin was the first to print a political cartoon in America or that he invented the first odometer when he was Postmaster General.

Along the same vein, Neo Leo introduces us to the amazing Leonardo da Vinci. At once an artist, engineer, mathematician, scientist, and visionary, da Vinci's detailed diagrams and designs paved the way for many of the modern mechanical contraptions we take for granted today.

The illustrations are clever and cheeky, allowing an older reader (viz., me) to hunt and spot as many da Vinci associations as one can find in each page.

Dear Deer, A Book of Homophones was our first encounter with this author which led us to Neo Leo and Now & Ben.

It is not easy to make biographies of great men accessible to kids - either they short-change the greatness or tend to be a tedious read. These two biographies by Barretta, however, certainly made a mark on the 7-year old, inspiring her to reach within herself and find all that she is capable of - at the moment, at least. After reading Now & Ben, it was a pleasure to hear her self-description: Ana, an artist, writer, musician, helper-of-people, joke-teller, and good-helper.

[image source: amazon.com]