Emphasizing resilience, this tale effectively captures a fascinating episode in recent history.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gleeful game for budding naturalists.
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
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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