Stone Giant & a Winner!

We've got a winner! The winner of Fatal Fever by Gail Jarrow is Danielle. Congratulations, and look for your copy in the mail. Now on to today's book.... which somehow got buried at the bottom of my book basket.

 Stone Giant: Michelangelo's David and how he came to be
by Jane Sutcliffe; illus by John Shelley
32 pages; ages 6-9
Charlesbridge, 2014

Ever since I was a kid, I've been intrigued by Michelangelo, a Renaissance painter, sculptor, poet, and architect. His "real" name is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni which, if you try to say that all in one breath, is probably why most people simply called him Michelangelo.

But I digress... this book begins with an enormous block of marble that is taking up space in the city of Florence. The city fathers wanted a statue of David - the heroic kid who felled a giant using only a sling, a stone, and his smarts. But things didn't turn out as they planned.... no sooner would an artist begin cutting into the stone than he'd quit or die.

Nobody knew what to do with this huge block of marble. Not even Leonardo da Vinci. Until Michelangelo came to town. He looked at the stone.... and he saw what others didn't: the David who was waiting to be released. So Michelangelo built a shed around the block of stone and went to work with his hammers, chisels, and a special drill.

It took a long time ~ three years ~ to chip the stone away from David, and Michelangelo stopped only when he had to eat or sleep. But finally, there he was. David. Ready to face Goliath.

David has been standing for more than 500 years, but Sutcliffe breathes so much life into her story that you can almost hear the chiseling, and taste the marble dust floating in the air. The illustrations are warm, providing plenty of visual details. Plus there's back matter for curious readers.

Today we're joining the roundup over at the Nonfiction Monday blog where you'll find even more book reviews. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Madeleine's Light

Madeleine’s Light

By Natalie Ziarnik; illustrated by Robert Dunn

32 pages; ages 5-7

Boyds Mills Press, 2012

 

It is the late 1890’s, and Madeleine is waiting, waiting for the artist to arrive at her family’s chateau. Finally, a team of horses pulls up. But when the artist steps out of the carriage, Madeleine sees only a scowling young woman in a long black coat.

This Camille Claudel, the famous sculptor who has come to work at the chateau, far from the distractions of Paris. Madeleine, who wants to be an artist herself, watches the sculptor at work. Camille takes her out to collect clay, and teaches her to look for the light inside the people she would sculpt.

Though fiction, the story is grounded in history: Claudel did stay at the Chateau de l’Islette over a few summers, and may have been inspired by the landlady’s granddaughter, Madeleine. This period seems to have been a turning point in Claudel’s artistic life; she sought to capture more than just the outlines of a person’s face.

Review copy provided by publisher.