Leonardo's Hand

by Wick Downing

Leonard Smith, called “Nard,” turns out to be the kind of boy who surprises everyone, including himself. An orphan with only one hand, Nard is used to bouncing from one foster home to the next. Then he moves out to the Swedenborge farm. A relic from the past, the old homestead is stuck in the center of a wealthy suburb. Life there is hard, with crazy Farley concocting wild, drunken schemes and neighborhood rich kids terrorizing the place, hoping to drive them out. But Anna is the mother Nard never had, and it’s there that he meets Anna’s granddaughter, Julie, as well as an unusual and mysterious kindred spirit who happens to be more than five hundred years old.
This unlikely trio enter an inventors’ contest, hoping to solve their own problems: paying Julie’s huge medical bills and saving the farm from land developers. Then Nard gets greedy and wants everything for himself. His is the largest problem of all. Leonardo’s Hand is a magical and unforgettable novel about a boy’s search for a place to call home.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 26, 2001

About the author

Wick Downing has been in the business of writing for a long time. His first novel was published in 1974, by Saturday Review Press, which at that time was a division of E. P. Dutton & Co. The hard-cover edition cost $5.95.
His early work was mystery and suspense and brought him some great press. Charles Willeford, a legendary reviewer for The Miami Herald, rated two of his first three novels as among the ten best mysteries of the year. Major newspapers everywhere, from California to Colorado (to be expected: Downing is from Denver) to the New York Times, wrote glowing reviews of his work. Foreign publication rights were sold to major publishing houses in France, Germany, Italy and Denmark, and the books sold abroad. He thought he was launched . . . .
But it didn't happen that way. No movie deals, no block-buster best-sellers, and the money that trickled in wasn't enough to feed him and his family. Fortunately, he had another occupation to fall back on: law. In the '90s, after a stint as District Attorney in rural Colorado, he turned to courtroom drama. Of those four novels, three won the Colorado Author's League Top Hand Award, and two were nominated for the Colorado Book Award. He also wrote a novel for young readers titled Kid Curry's Last Ride (Orchard Books), a Richard Jackson Imprint, published in paper-back by HarperCollins. Leonardo's Hand is also a book for young readers.
Downing continues to write. The one thing in his life about which he is deadly serious is the craft of fiction.

Reviews

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A homeless boy is adopted by an interesting "family". He's always been smart (descendant from Leonardo da Vinci, the boy was born without a left hand)and meet some special challenges to help his new family da Vinci's disembodied left hand exists in this story, befriending the boy and making drawings from him. (weird)

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of this book was a little out there, but I thought it was a good story.


2009 Fall Challenge category: unfinished category - body part in title

[Paityn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book alot. I thought it was very interesting.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, but I rounded up...

[R. Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty interesting story. Quite imaginative.