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THE BEES OF NOTRE-DAME

Name: THE BEES OF NOTRE-DAME
Author: Meghan P. Browne
ISBN: 9780593374566

by Meghan P. Browne ; illustrated by E.B. Goodale ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 2023

Emphasizing resilience, this tale effectively captures a fascinating episode in recent history.

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When Notre Dame Cathedral burned in April 2019, the honeybees on the roof above its sacristy survived.

Amid the world’s sorrow at the terrible damage suffered by the storied cathedral, the bees’ survival emerged as a story of hope. Browne treats it likewise, but her text focuses on the ordinary miracles of the honeybee life cycle as the context for the story of the fire. Loving scenes of Paris in springtime preface the bees’ emergence: “Bonjour, les filles!” Sibyle the beekeeper greets them. The bees fly above the city, then return to the “small pine box” where the queen “lays her eggs…in thousands of perfect hexagons waxed by generations of bees that came before her.” With this, Browne cleverly segues to the ancient cathedral and its construction; the parallel is evoked again in firefighters’ efforts “to quench the flames, to save the cathedral. To save the hives.” Goodale’s multimedia illustrations are set on warm, sepia-toned backgrounds; her bees flit among cottony pink and white blossoming trees and around the ornate architectural flourishes of the cathedral. Introduced by a wordless spread dominated by billows of gray smoke, the fire itself occupies just a few pages before scenes of rebuilding. An author’s note provides further information on both the fire and the bees and their keeper, whom Goodale depicts with beige skin. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Emphasizing resilience, this tale effectively captures a fascinating episode in recent history. (cathedral diagrams, recommended reading) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023

ISBN: 9780593374566

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House Studio

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
DOROTHY THE BRAVE
by Meghan P. Browne ; illustrated by Brooke Smart

- BOOK REVIEW
INDELIBLE ANN
by Meghan P. Browne ; illustrated by Carlynn Whitt

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BUTT OR FACE?

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781728271170

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

- BOOK REVIEW
WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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WHAT IF YOU HAD AN ANIMAL HOME!?

From the What if You Had . . .? series

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024

Another playful imagination-stretcher.

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Markle invites children to picture themselves living in the homes of 11 wild animals.

As in previous entries in the series, McWilliam’s illustrations of a diverse cast of young people fancifully imitating wild creatures are paired with close-up photos of each animal in a like natural setting. The left side of one spread includes a photo of a black bear nestling in a cozy winter den, while the right side features an image of a human one cuddled up with a bear. On another spread, opposite a photo of honeybees tending to newly hatched offspring, a human “larva” lounges at ease in a honeycomb cell, game controller in hand, as insect attendants dish up goodies. A child with an eye patch reclines on an orb weaver spider’s web, while another wearing a head scarf constructs a castle in a subterranean chamber with help from mound-building termites. Markle adds simple remarks about each type of den, nest, or burrow and basic facts about its typical residents, then closes with a reassuring reminder to readers that they don’t have to live as animals do, because they will “always live where people live.” A select gallery of traditional homes, from igloo and yurt to mudhif, follows a final view of the young cast waving from a variety of differently styled windows.

Another playful imagination-stretcher. (Informational picture book. 6-8)