Madeline and the Gypsies (Picture Puffin) [Paperback]

Ludwig Bemelmans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 1977 | Series: Picture Puffin

"How inevitable that the irrepressible Madeline should one day meet up with gypsies. . . . As absurd and amusing as ever."--Chicago Tribune.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One day Pepito, son of the Spanish ambassador who lives next door to Madeline, invites her and her cohorts to a Gypsy carnival. They venture forth excitedly, but suddenly a storm hits the fairgrounds, so everyone hops in a taxi and heads back home. Except for Madeline and Pepito, that is--forgotten and stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel in a downpour. Pepito climbs down to get help, and the Gypsy Mama takes the children under her wing ... and on the road. Gypsy life affords many previously forbidden wonders to the two kids--they get to float in a pool while everyone else is in school, and they don't have to brush their teeth, or even sleep. In between learning how to walk the tightrope and juggling, they send Miss Clavel a postcard. "'Thank heaven,' she said, 'The children are well! / But dear, oh dear, they've forgotten how to spell.'" As she and Madeline's 11 classmates race to find them (based on the postmark location), the Gypsy Mama sees the approaching Parisian posse in her crystal ball. Despite the Gypsy Mama's worst intentions, and the fact that she sewed the children into an old lion's costume to hide them, Madeline and Pepito are reunited with Miss Clavel and the others. The Chicago Tribune writes, "How inevitable that the irrepressible Madeline should one day meet up with gypsies.... As absurd and amusing as ever." (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Ludwig Bemelmans was a painter, illustrator, and writer for both children and adults. The Madeline books are among the most honored children's books of all time. Mr. Bemelmans died in 1962 after completing his sixth story about Madeline, Madeline's Christmas. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (October 27, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140502610
• ISBN-13: 978-0140502619
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,675,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ludwig Bemelmans (April 27, 1898-October 1, 1962), Austro-American essayist, humorist, novelist, artist, and author of books for children, was born in Meran, in the Tyrol, in territory that was then Austrian and is now Italian. In 1914, he arrived in New York with letters of introduction to managers of several large hotels. Having worked his way up to a position as a waiter at the Ritz-Carlton, he left to enlist in the United States Army in 1917. Eventually he opened his own restaurant; only in 1934 did he turn to writing, at the suggestion of a friend in publishing who, noticing the whimsical paintings with which he covered the walls of his apartment, urged him to undertake a children's book. Hansi, the first of Bemelmans' fifteen books for children, beguiled most reviewers with its simple watercolor illustrations and nostalgic story of two children and their dog in the Austrian Tyrol. His greatest success, however, was Madeline, a rhymed picture book about a Parisian schoolgirl who becomes the envy of her classmates when her appendix is removed. Indeed, the Madeline books, of which there were five, remain the work that Bemelmans is primarily remembered for. The inspired amateurishness of the illustrations and the sophisticated doggerel verses have been an influence on later juvenile literature. Madeline's Rescue, the second book in the series, was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1953. Bemelmans claimed to have no imagination, and all his books were the more or less direct product of his experience. He described his life as a restaurateur in Life Class and Hotel Splendide, his travels to Ecuador and Italy in The Donkey Inside and Italian Holiday, and his stint as a Hollywood screenwriter in the novel Dirty Eddie. At the time of his death he was working on the story of his childhood. Bemelmans was a genial satirist and lover of life, but a serious intent often underlay his humor, especially in his novels. A case in point is Blue Danube, a fanciful story set on an island of the Danube, the comedy of which is very much clouded by the appearance of a band of odious Nazis. A somewhat more successful novel was Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, concerning the unusual journey of an elderly Ecuadorian general from his villa in Biarritz to his home in South America. From the time of his marriage to Madeline Freund in 1935 (they had one daughter, Barbara) until his death in New York of pancreatic cancer, Bemelmans traveled, painted, and generally wrote a book or two a year. Reviewing his posthumous novel, the comic love story The Street Where the Heart Lies, Burling Lowrey in Saturday Review called Bemelmans "a superb craftsman with a sure eye for atmospheric detail and a supremely accurate ear for the speech of Adult Innocents madly in love with the unattainable.. . He was a complete original, with an absolutely unique temperament and view toward the world."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Madeline and Pepito join the Gypsy Carnival, March 25, 2006

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Madeline and the Gypsies, Reissue (Hardcover)

Having seen pages from the orignal version of the earliest adventures of Tintin and American cartoons from before World War II, I am aware that such works could often be racist and contain stereotypes. Hergé went back and redid his offensive artwork and the versions of those cartoons available today have been edited (or censored, if you prefer). So I was interested in charges of perpetuating stereotyping being raised here against a children's book that was written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans in the United States at the time that the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum.

"Madeline and the Gypsies" first appeared, in a shorter version, in "McCall's" in 1958-59. As readers recall from "Madeline and the Bad Hat," next door to the old house in Paris that was covered with vines was the house of the Spanish Ambassador, whose son Pepito was reformed by Madeline (well, actually by a pack of dogs, but Madeline endorsed the whole thing). His parents are gone and Pepito invites the twelve little girls over a Gypsy Carnival. A cloudburst sends everybody home, but when the girls are tucked into bed Miss Clavel discovers that Madeline is missing. This is because at the top of the Ferris Wheel, stuck in the rainstorm, are Pepito and Madeline. He climbs down to get aid and the Gypsy Mama, with the aid of the strong man and the clown, get Madeline to safety.

Explaining that "Gypsies do not like to stay--They only come to go away," the Gypsy Mama gives the drenched children medicine, puts them to bed, and takes Madeline and Pepito with her when the carnival leaves. Now, technically I suppose this IS kidnapping. But there is a long-standing tradition of running away to join the circus (Toby Tyler anyone?) and "Madeline and the Gypsies" is very much in that spirit. The police are never involved and the Gypsies do not engage in criminal behavior (besides spiriting away the children). So I do not see evidence that this book either embraces or endorses the extant stereotype. Of course, if you have any concerns about this subject you are absolutely encouraged to check out the book for yourself before you let your children read it.

Certainly the life that the two children live with the Gypsy Carnival is grand. They do not go to school, and they never have to brush their teeth or go to sleep. The Gypsies teach them grace and speed, not to mention how to ride the circus horse. They even send Miss Clavel a postcard (their spelling is atrocious), which is how she knows where to go when she moves fast and faster to the scene of this book's disaster. When the adventure is over everybody says goodbye and then everybody goes home. I suppose you could think that when Madeline is cleaned up back at the old house that the implication is that Gypsies are dirty rather than clean, but as a general rule kids tend to be dirty rather than clean. Maybe offense is in the eyes of the beholder here, but at the very least I can argue that "Madeline and the Gypsies" is not an overt example of racism or stereotyping. Certainly such things can be discussed with young readers, who may not be as familiar with this particular stereotype as we were when we were the age of Madeline and Pepito.

Once again Bemelmans makes use of familiar Paris landmarks, namely Notre-Dame and Gare Saint-Lazare. But because there is some traveling involved this time around we also get to see Chateau de Fontainebleau, the Cathedral at Chartes, Mont-Saint-Michel, a Normandy farm, and the seacoast at Deauville. Actually, the artwork that stands out in this book is the second to last page, which shows the twelve little girls bouncing off of their beds. It is not unusual that the girls are not tucked away in their beds, but seeing the scene in full color for the first time in the series in this fourth book instead of the usual yellow page is sort of odd (but Bemelmans does revert to the traditional tinting for the final page).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, January 12, 2007

By 

Reader (Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Madeline and the Gypsies, Reissue (Hardcover)

An excellent book for children with great drawings of the most famous places and monuments of Paris.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another very good Madeline story, September 26, 2011

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Madeline and the Gypsies, Reissue (Hardcover)

"In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines." In 1939, Ludwig Bemelmans began writing stories about a group of girls in a school in Paris, foremost among whom was the irrepressible Madeline. Those books are now considered classics in children's literature, having collected many awards.

In this Madeline adventure, the girls go with Pepito to a Gypsy Carnival. But, when a storm hits the area, and Miss Clavel rushes the girls off home, she little realizes that she forgot Madeline and Pepito! The two have a grand time with the carnival and its people, but poor Miss Clavel is worried sick!

This is another very good Madeline story. I liked the gentle rhyming of the story, and my little reader liked all of the adventures and misadventures that Madeline and Pepito had. True, it does present an old-fashioned and very out-of-date view of the Gypsies, but considering the book was written in the 1950s that not surprising. If you think that such things will offend you, then by all means, avoid this book.

As for me and my little reader, we really enjoyed this book, and we both highly recommend it.