Little Girls in Two Straight Lines: Madeline

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. 1939.

Sweet Matisse-like illustrations with a strong plot. Madeline is characterized as being fearless, but she cries at her pain (her appendix!), so the severity of her illness is obvious. Everyone’s concern for her is touching and makes boarding school a little less lonely.

The rhyme is more organic than sing-song, which greatly enhancing read-aloud pleasure. 

The commentary on cultural expectations for girls brought out in Inside Picture Books (Yale Nota Bene) (Spitz) was interesting, however. I too had noted the slight phallic nature of the nuns, but I thought it was just me.

Rebecca Grabill

Rebecca has been writing since childhood, her first book about a kitten published between homemade cardboard covers in second grade. Although she studied religion and philosophy in university, she continued writing, earning an MFA from Hamline University and publishing multiple picture books (no longer with homemade covers) and a collection of poetry with a variety of New York and independent publishers. She has also published a wide array of fiction, essays, and poetry in magazines and journals and photographs for Getty Images. She balances writing with homeschooling the younger of her six children, launching her young adults, church activities, and overseeing a small flock of chickens in rural West Michigan.

www.rebeccagrabill.com
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Racial Harmony in Picture Book Form: The Other Side

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