Soaring tributes to both the building and the workers who preserved it.
A history of the renowned Gothic edifice from its foundation to its restoration in the wake of the devastating fire of 2019.
Billing his subject as the most ancient, famous, and important monument in Paris, Curlee retraces in fervent tones Notre-Dame’s history from its 12th-century beginnings on. He takes note of its many distinctive architectural features and its ups and downs as a religious and cultural center, including its use as “an immense storage shed for munitions and wine” during the French Revolution. Curlee goes into exacting detail about the causes, course, and aftermath of the 2019 fire, which destroyed the spire and roof while spreading tons of toxic lead through the wreckage; at last, he outlines the heroic cleanup efforts that led to a triumphant reopening in December 2024. “It is resplendent,” he writes. “The rebuilt and refreshed old church has a new lease on life.” In other books, Curlee’s ultra-formal style of painting can look stodgy, but here it’s a nice fit, whether he’s depicting a worried-looking gargoyle against a fiery sky, Napoleon posing in imperial robes opposite a melodramatically grimacing Quasimodo, cutaway views of vaults and flying buttresses, or grand views of the original nave and huge stained-glass windows. In the backmatter, Curlee includes a roundup of descriptive measurements and historic anecdotes, along with a nod to David Macaulay’s classic Cathedral (2013). Afterword not seen.
Soaring tributes to both the building and the workers who preserved it. (glossary, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781665971836
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care.
In 1977, the oil carrier Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into a formerly pristine Alaskan ocean inlet, killing millions of birds, animals, and fish. Despite a cleanup, crude oil is still there.
The Winters foretold the destructive powers of the atomic bomb allusively in The Secret Project (2017), leaving the actuality to the backmatter. They make no such accommodations to young audiences in this disturbing book. From the dark front cover, on which oily blobs conceal a seabird, to the rescuer’s sad face on the back, the mother-son team emphasizes the disaster. A relatively easy-to-read and poetically heightened text introduces the situation. Oil is pumped from the Earth “all day long, all night long, / day after day, year after year” in “what had been unspoiled land, home to Native people // and thousands of caribou.” The scale of extraction is huge: There’s “a giant pipeline” leading to “enormous ships.” Then, crash. Rivers of oil gush out over three full-bleed wordless pages. Subsequent scenes show rocks, seabirds, and sea otters covered with oil. Finally, 30 years later, animals have returned to a cheerful scene. “But if you lift a rock… // oil / seeps / up.” For an adult reader, this is heartbreaking. How much more difficult might this be for an animal-loving child?
Like oil itself, this is a book that needs to be handled with special care. (author’s note, further reading) (Informational picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3077-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
IN THE NEWS
Bial (A Handful of Dirt, p. 299, etc.) conjures up ghostly images of the Wild West with atmospheric photos of weathered clapboard and a tally of evocative names: Tombstone, Deadwood, Goldfield, Progress, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, the OK Corral. Tracing the life cycle of the estimated 30,000 ghost towns (nearly 1300 in Utah alone), he captures some echo of their bustling, rough-and-tumble past with passages from contemporary observers like Mark Twain: “If a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was appear in public in a white shirt or stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated.” Among shots of run-down mining works, dusty, deserted streets, and dark eaves silhouetted against evening skies, Bial intersperses 19th-century photos and prints for contrast, plus an occasional portrait of a grizzled modern resident. He suggests another sort of resident too: “At night that plaintive hoo-hoo may be an owl nesting in a nearby saguaro cactus—or the moaning of a restless ghost up in the graveyard.” Children seeking a sense of this partly mythic time and place in American history, or just a delicious shiver, will linger over his tribute. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-06557-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
