![]() ![]() Energetic line drawings place the girls amongst all the great buildings of Paris – Sacre Coeur, the Place Vendome, Notre Dame – but she’s not French she’s apparently Texan. ![]() I thought the old house was an orphanage – it’s not, it’s a boarding school. ![]() She’s all of these things and a girl.Īs a child I had no real idea about the economic and parental arrangements – apart from the fact that there was an off-stage papa, no mother at all, and clearly enough cash to fly a horse between Paris and London (where, in Madeline in London, the girls go to visit Madeline’s sidekick-in-mischief Pepito, the son of the Spanish ambassador). She’s different from everyone else – but clearly in a good way. ![]() She knows what’s right, often in defiance of the grownups. She’s the one most inclined to create trouble and mischief – but also fun. Madeline is a great character: she’s the smallest, and she’s the bravest. And that, as well as the rhythm, is a huge part of the appeal of these books by Ludwig Bemelmans, which I not only read to my daughter, but give to friends who have daughters. ![]()
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