A Brief History of Michelangelo's David

Author Jane Sutcliffe

A month after Michelangelo's David was unveiled in September 1504, more work was ordered. David's sling and the tree stump behind his leg were covered in gold. Some experts say David himself wore a crown of gold leaves. And he was given a belt of copper leaves to cover his nakedness.

The people of Florence hoped that their David would always bring the city luck. But as it turned out, he wasn't in the luckiest of spots.

Once lightning struck the statue and damaged the base.

Another time someone threw a bench out of a window just above David's head. The bench hit David's left arm and smashed it into three pieces. A friend of Michelangelo's rescued the pieces. Later the statue was repared.

Then the giant faced a different kind of danger. Year after year of standing in the city square meant year after year of hot summers and cold winters. It meant year after year of rain and wind and dirt. And bird droppings

After a few centuries someone noticed that the statue was looking pretty dirty. Worse, the marble was pitted and damaged. David was being worn away. 

There was only one thing to do. The statue was cleaned and moved inside for safekeeping. Of course the people of Florence could not think of a city square without David. So a copy was made to stand in the same place.

Now David has been standing for more than five hundred years. He is safe and protected. The adornments are gone. People who come to see David today see him much as he must have looked when he left Michelangelo's hands.

From the Author's Note in Stone Giant: 
Michelangelo's David and How He Came to Be

Mitali Perkins launches Bamboo People at Porter Square Books

On August 19th Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hosted the launch party for Mitali Perkins' new book Bamboo People.

Here is video of Mitali reading from Bamboo People:



A huge thank you to everyone at Porter Square Books, especially Nathan who took such good care of us and made this event so great.

If you went and enjoyed the delicious appetizers, please note that this came from YoMa restaurant on North Beacon Street in Allston. They specialize in traditional Burmese recipes. Awesome.

Here are some pictures from the event:


Mitali discusses the background of Bamboo People.















Mitali and some young fans.















Mitali signs a copy of Bamboo People for a young fan.











Sharing a story with a young reader.













Mitali and a few Charlesbridgians.
From left to right: Sarah, Gina, Lili, and Mitali.












Mitali and Deborah Sloane.













Mitali shares a copy of Bamboo People with Nathan, of Porter Square Books.

Charlesbridge Makes TV Debut with Imagine

ALA Midwinter in Boston

Don't call it Beantown. It's "America's Walking City" and it is our understanding that on Saturday, January 15th, you could walk around town quite comfortably during our January thaw. We wouldn't know. We were tucked away underground in the Boston Convention Center (the fairly new big boy of convention centers), enjoying the warmth of librarians.

While it may have been 40 degrees outside, it was hot in the aisles. And it was wicked hot ("wicked" is a popular word in New England that means "really, really"), at the Charlesbridge booth with authors like Mitali Perkins and Lynn Plourde signing.

At left is a photo of Mitali signing copies of the ARC of her upcoming novel, Bamboo People (July 2010). Notice Angus Killick and friends hovering Zelig-like for photo ops.

(Photo from American Libraries Photostream)



But the most exciting part of all -- as always -- was Monday morning and the awards announcements. This year Charlesbridge got to scream real loud (just like on Pee Wee's Playhouse). The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton and illustrated by Tony Persiani, was named a Sibert Honor Book. Fantastic to be in our own backyard and to be able to have people in the hall to holler (despite the now-bad weather) because it's just sad when it's just the two of you. And what a great dollop of cream filling for a cupcake of a year for that most awesome of books.

Speaking of cupcakes... whenever anything remotely good happens at Charlesbridge -- a book wins a major award, someone has a baby, a brand new episode of Lost -- the staff at the Bridge tends to celebrate. Never met an office-full of people so ready to stop, drop, and gather in the conference room for some chips and dip. Or, in this case, Day-Glo cupcakes. With champagne (surprisingly not a bad combo). There was orange juice for mimosas for those that don't like their alcohol straight up first thing in the morning. We're "rock stars", not rock stars.
(Don't they look disgusting and possibly toxic? But, Duncan Hines! Don't mess with perfection)







Look at them all ogling those tasty cakes. Wait, now, everybody. You'll be told when you can dig in.








At left, the creative team, who put the "day" in Day-Glo. The uncreative team toddled off to seek out more cerebral pursuits.










And MORE good news! The Importance of Wingsby Robin Friedman is the WINNER of the Sydney Taylor Book Award. Congratulations, Robin! Well-deserved.

"Friedman does an exquisite job in bringing the two older girls to life" - Booklist

"[A] voice that is both sardonic and sincere..."
- Kirkus Reviews

"...middle school angst, first crushes, and the importance of finding one’s own wings." - School Library Journal

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Find out more about The Day-Glo Brothers and The Importance of Wings at www.charlesbridge.com.

When Things Don't Go Your Way, Go Theirs

ALA 2008. What an exhibit booth might look like.

In the publishing game there are these things called 'exhibits.' These are places that a fraction of the publishing company's staff go to in order to display the company's books and discuss services, exchange ideas, share knowledge, and learn from the folks on the frontline who are putting said books into the hands of little children who will then read them. Exhibits are good. They are fun and, on the surface, easy.

But we all know that something nefarious lurks beneath the surface. Something there is that does not like order and organization. Chaos, I guess. A quieter sort of chaos, however. One more like a sunburn than a fever. Makes it hard to sleep, but a little aloe vera and you will soon find comfort enough. Maybe an aspirin.

This year is Charlesbridge's 20th anniversary. So, we created a banner of such beauty and whimsy (Possible? Yes.) to hang in our booths at exhibits such as IRA, BEA, and ALA. It's easy:

Step 1: Create a banner. (Enter chaos at a slow burn . . . "Here is what I've created for your exhibits." "Change it." "Oy, can it be less expensive. It is a recession, you know." "How about this?" "Uh . . . getting there." "Now?" "Ah, it's whimsy is a thing of beauty.")

Step 2: Ship it. (Time to apply a liiiiittle sunscreen. Theoretically, you fill out the shipping papers, box up your stuff, and give it to someone who puts boxes on a truck, takes them to where you've told them to take them, removes the boxes at the final destination, and goes away. Voila! Shipping defined. However . . .)

Step 3: Hang your banner! (And here is where your skin starts to really blister. Hang 'em if you got 'em, sucka!)

Step 3 is where we got hung up (or not, as the case may be) this year at ALA. We had a slight snag with Step 2 after BEA when our shipment came home sans banner. It did show up some time later, and just in time to make it into the ALA shipment with hours to spare. Ah, the hectic fast paced, but certainly glamorous (no one's complaining), life of the exhibit planner.

All's well? You wish. I do, anyway. How could it go wrong, I pondered. Banner with shipment on skid encased in shrinkwrap. All those boxes are now as one. Nothing nor nobody can tear them asunder.

You naive, simple-minded, oh-too-trusting exhibit planner. Ha, ha, ha. That banner is not going to ALA. You'll never know where it went. Did it even make it to Chicago? God in His Heaven only knows.

BUT! Here is where the aloe vera comes in. No banner? Not the end of the world (but all you ALA attendees were deprived of the sweetest booth banner this side of the Pecos). No banner, but you gotta do something. So, lovely, talented Meg Bencivenni--School and Library Marketing at Charlesbridge--fashioned the loveliest and most talented booth banner in the WHOLE WORLD! One co-worker dubbed her Meg-gyver for using her wits when the pressure was on. With just some tape and a few zillion catalog covers, Meg made do. (See Meg reading about the perfect fairy tale exhibit booth?)

AND, here's where the aspirin comes in: the lovely and sympathetic Elizabeth Bird, blogger Fuse #8, saw fit to recognize the ingenuity of an exhibitor without a banner by declaring Charlesbridge the winner of the Best Last Minute Banner Because the Real One Didn't Get Delivered Award (Scroll down just past Neil Gaiman and just before the Storm Troopers).

From Fuse #8. Meg's clever interpretation of a booth banner,
called "Booth Banner For Banished Banner"

If you are interested (if you're still here), this is what the banner is supposed to look like:

Now close your eyes and imagine it ten feet wide and with Meg proudly standing in front of it.

Now my tale of woe is ended. To quote Bob Dylan, "Nothing was delivered/And I tell this truth to you/Not out of spite or anger/But simply because it's true."

Posted by Donna, hapless exhibit planner.

Sign the Wall!

Charlesbridge is 20 years old!

Thank you for your continued support. We'd love to hear from you.
Sign the virtual wall by leaving a comment. What do you think of us so far?

Have I got a match for you!

Hello! I'm Caroline, the publicity intern at Charlesbridge. A few days a week, I wear another hat -- that of a bookseller at a local indie bookstore in Cambridge, Porter Square Books. My day-to-day life is filled with books, coffee, and the occasional 'spy session' for my upcoming 'tell-all,' What I Overheard at the Bookshop. Part-thriller, part-romance, part-self-help, part-humor, this book would encompass the complex relationship people have to text. No two customers look or act alike -- they resemble the myriad books on our shelves, each with a story of their own.

As a bookseller, the most satisfying feeling is matching a book with an owner. Whether it's the classic Make Way for Ducklings for that European couple bringing a book back for their child, the memoir last featured on NPR, or a "mindless, beach-read" to get one's mind off the current economic woes, we're there to make a match. Ever since I was a little girl, Fiddler on the Roof was one of my favorite musicals. In it, the three daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava sing "Matchmaker," where they dream about their future spouses and tease each other of the potential disasters that yente (the matchmaker) could bring. I have always enjoyed making matches -- people-to-people, book-to-customer -- often using my family and friends as my next challenge. Perhaps this is my calling; after all, I am pursuing full-time work and exploring diverse career paths. In the meantime, stop by the bookstore, have some coffee, and let us make a match!

Check out my March staff pick -- Charlesbridge's own Pippo the Fool by Tracey Fern:

Posted by Caroline Litwick, of Porter Square Books and Charlesbridge.