Leo is considered a “lifer” at the Academy of Florence, a boarding school for young children. At 13 years old, he doesn’t know who his parents are, nor if he has any other family at all. Luckily for him, however, he is highly intelligent and ambitious when it comes to his inventions. Unfortunately, they rarely work properly and often cause significant damage to their surroundings. While being punished for one of these incidents, Leo discovers a series of hidden tunnels beneath the school. LEO, Inventor Extraordinaire details the boy’s journey that may lead to answers about who he is, where his parents are, and his strange connection with a highly successful toy company.

Leo isn’t completely alone at the Academy; he built a mechanical monkey named Dante who helps him retrieve items and carry out tasks, as well as a robotic lion named Gemini who is programmed to protect him. Leo’s best friend and fellow lifer Savvy shares his affinity for inventing things, and the two bond over the possibilities of their engineering aptitude. They work together to solve the puzzles in the tunnels, although they seem to be built especially for Leo. When the CEO of Wynn Toys, Beatrice, finds Leo and indicates she has information about Leo’s family, his world becomes so much bigger than he ever imagined. 

LEO, Inventor Extraordinaire is the debut novel for Luke Cunningham, and intended for middle-grade readers. The story is appropriately paced, and the short chapters render the book easy to power through. Leo’s journey is unique in that the puzzles below the school require him to use his education of various subjects – including math, art, music, science, and more. I felt like I learned new things regarding these subjects – whether it was how pervasive the Fibonacci sequence is in our universe, or how to translate certain words from Latin. 

That’s why I love the age range of the intended audience – LEO, Inventor Extraordinaire is so much more than a genius orphan’s search for his identity. Cunningham shows us the importance of learning from our mistakes. We see how fun science and technology can be, while still finding use in the humanities. Parents and teachers alike would appreciate how this book stresses the need to pay attention in school, as Leo uses information from his lessons to help him solve the puzzles. 

While he is indeed an ambitious genius, Leo is still 13 years old – a key detail that Cunningham beautifully illustrates throughout the novel. He reacts to situations much like someone his age would – such as running away when he realizes he will be leaving the Academy, along with his sense of humor. What I appreciated most about Leo was his enthusiasm for inventing – no matter how often his experiments went wrong, he still approached each new idea with the same motivation and excitement as the last one. 

Besides the main character and valuable lessons, LEO, Inventor Extraordinaire has plenty of qualities that make it a worthwhile read, including a compelling villain, plot twists, action, and warm fuzzy feelings. The book also features tons of sketches of Leo’s inventions to help bring Cunningham’s vision to life. I highly suggest that interested readers, parents, and teachers follow the book on Instagram to see some of these illustrations and learn more about the story’s real-life connections.

Luke Cunningham joins our growing list of guests featured on our Cantina Conversations. We talked about his background, the research on Leonardo da Vinci and Italian Renaissance history that went into the book, and his plans for the future. Keep an ear out for a future episode of The Nerd Cantina Show podcast, and pre-order LEO, Inventor Extraordinaire before its release on April 6.