The Vanishing Point

Rating:
Summary: The Vanishing Point
Review: Everyone takes feminism for granted. No one who reads this book will ever do so again. Young readers will learn what it was like to try to "follow your heart" if you were a woman in the days of the Renaissance. Lavinia Fontana, a genius and probably the most famous female painter of the Italian Renaissance, did not have an easy path. Forbidden to paint because of her gender, she has to convince a boy who works in her father's studio to pretend her paintings are his so that she can learn and get materials so she can paint--in secret.

Readers will want to rise up in rage against Lavinia's father, though, like Vini, they will eventually come to some tolerance of him.

A heartrending story with a great end, The Vanishing Point is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: A Must-read for both adults and YAs
Review: This is a beautiful, richly-detailed portrait of a young girl in Renaissance Italy. Readers will laugh, cry, and experience Vini's hunger for the art she is forbidden to explore. We follow Vini as she grows to understand more about her parents and herself. Teens will identify with her as she learns more about the nature of life, love and longing. Adults and some perceptive teens will appreciate the symoblism of Vini's awakening adulthood as she "breaks the strings" that have controlled her young life, just as they control the puppets on the town square. Excellent historical detail enlightens without sounding pedantic. After I finished it, I handed the book to my 17-year-old daughter. She couldn't put it down, until she turned the last page. I have recommended this book to many adult friends, and so far, no one has been disappointed!