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By Nicholas Day, Brett Helquist “The tale of a stunning art heist with a contagious love of stranger-than-fiction true stories!”—Steve Sheinkin, Newbery Honor–winning author of Bomb The true story of how Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece became the most famous painting in the world after being stolen from the Louvre, written as a “witty thriller” ( The New York Times ) and featuring black-and-white illustrations throughout. SIBERT MEDAL WINNER • BOSTON GLOBE—HORN BOOK AWARD WINNER • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly , School Library Journal , Booklist, Kirkus Reviews , NPR, The New York Public Library, The Chicago Public Library, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie ! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting? Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa —the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all. AWARDS • Georgia Children's Book Award • 2024 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner • 2025 Keystone to Reading Book Award • 2025 Maine Student Book Award • 2025 Michigan Library Association YouPer (Young Person) Award • 2025 Ohio Buckeye Children's Book Award • 2025 Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award • 2025 Vermont Golden Dome Book Award • 2025 Wyoming Indian Paintbrush Book Award • 2026 South Carolina Children's Book Award •…