The Rooster of Notre Dame: A Children’s Book Inspired by the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris by Géraldine Elschner, Rémi Saillard
Published by Prestel Junior on March 22, 2022
Pages: 32
Genres: Fantasy
Format: Picture Book Fiction
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Translated from the French by Paul Kelly, this oversized picture book tells a fanciful story about the copper rooster that topped the spire of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France until the tragic fire of April 19, 2019. The rooster admires its views of the city, and its views of a trio of chickens, one of which it thinks of as its Esmeralda (the name of Quasimodo’s love interest in Victor Hugo’s classic novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). When fire destroys most of the cathedral, the rooster tries to warn people, but only the gargoyles can hear his call. The frustrated rooster plummets into the burning building. Surprisingly, the rooster is recovered from the wreckage and is happily reunited with his Esmeralda when he discovers the chickens are housed next to the storage facility in which the rooster and other Notre-Dame statuary are stored.

This fully illustrated book of magical realism is based on historical events. The Notre-Dame Cathedral really did burn, there really was a rooster on its spire, and that rooster really was recovered after the fire. It is an imaginative way to broach the historical topic.

Reviewed by Crystal Wilder, University of Southern Maine, Gorham Campus Library