“Picture books speak to us in the same way photographs do. They touch our emotions, delight our senses, appeal to our whimsy, and bring back memories of our childhood. Picture books invite us to curl up and read them.” (Mitchell, 2003) I have always been a fan of the Madeline books since I was a child. Madeline’s Rescue is a great example of a picture book that invites the reader in and makes the reader want to read more from the series. Although I found the title to be a bit misleading, as the rescue is only the beginning of the story, it is a well written and wonderfully illustrated story. It may have been published seventy years ago, but it stands up today as a great picture book for all ages. It was even included in School Library Journal’s top 100 children’s picture books in 2012, nearly sixty years after it was written, proving that its appeal has endured.
Madeline’s Rescue is the second book in the Madeline series written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. Madeline is one of twelve girls living at a boarding school in Paris. Bemelmans was an Austrian born writer living in New York City when he wrote Madeline’s Rescue. Bemelmans was described as being “Like the character he created, Bemelmans, it turns out, was a true free spirit, a freewheeling, free-spending, freelance writer-artist who brought his own quirky joie de vivre to his creations.” (Wernick, 1998). Although Bemelmans passed away in 1962, his grandson, John Bemelmans Marciano continued to add to the series, crafting the stories and illustrations to echo the ones that his grandfather had written. “Madeline’s life story was based on that of Bemelmans’ mother, with a touch of his own childhood mixed in. Mrs. Bemelmans was educated at a convent, and Ludwig himself recalled his boarding school days when he and his classmates had to line up in two perfectly straight lines to go anywhere.” (Conradt, 2010). Madeline’s Rescue was first published in 1953, fourteen years after the first Madeline book. It won the Caldecott Medal in 1954. It is the only Madeline book to win the Caldecott Medal, although the first book was awarded a Caldecott Honor book in 1940.
The Caldecott Medal is awarded for distinguished illustrations, and the webpage for the award describes what constitutes a picture book’s eligibility to be considered for the award. “A “picture book for children” as distinguished from other books with illustrations, is one that essentially provides the child with a visual experience. A picture book has a collective unity of story-line, theme, or concept, developed through the series of pictures of which the book is comprised.” This book certainly provides readers with a visual experience. It is filled with beautiful, practically page filling illustrations.
The text in this book is somewhat minimal, often only one sentence on a page, so the illustrations are the main focus in the book. Bemelman’s illustrations are rich with color and detail. They set the scene around the city of Paris. When the girls are outside of the school, the buildings are drawn to depict a realistic view of the city and are very colorful. Many of the illustrations have a yellow background, with black and white line drawings, especially those that take place within the school. These are less detailed than the outdoor scenes, however they still give the reader an accurate portrayal of the plot of the story, so that if you were a new reader, or were only looking at the illustrations without the text, you would still be able to interpret the story.
I hope that you will check out Madeline’s Rescue, as well as the other books in the series and enjoy them! They are classics that can be appreciated by readers of all ages.
References
- The Quick 10: Madeline. (2010, April 16). Mental Floss.
- Top 100 Picture Books #80: Madeline’s Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans. (2012, May 21). A Fuse #8 Production. School Library Journal.
- Wernick, R. (n.d.). The Man Who Dreamed Up Madeline. Smithsonian Magazine.
