The Bees of Notre-Dame

Graceful prose by Browne (Dorothy the Brave) pays homage to Paris’s venerable Notre-Dame cathedral, and to the bees that lived atop it before its 2019 fire. Highlighted in soft brown lines, multimedia spreads by Goodale (The Moon Remembers) trace a young queen’s mating flight above the city before she returns to a cathedral-top hive to lay eggs “in thousands of perfect hexagons.” Above Paris, the hives are tended by a brown-skinned beekeeper just visible on the cathedral roof, and clad in a white bee suit and veil. But then, sudden catastrophe: fire consumes the edifice, and firefighters work “to quench the flames, to save the cathedral./ To save the hives.” Goodale draws the cathedral’s beekeeper working in front of the scaffolding erected to repair the building. “Rebuild,” Browne writes, “Work with each other... just like the bees.” The story highlights the contemporary, as city-dwellers of many skin tones patronize bookstalls and drink coffee in spring; the ancient (“This cathedral has outlived kings and queens”); and the way each species contributes, together, to flourishing community. Back matter includes photographs and details about the fire and the rebuilding. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Literary Group. Illustrator’s agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary Agency. (Oct.)