Madeline's Rescue (Viking Kestrel picture books) [Hardcover]

Ludwig Bemelmans (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 1953 | Age Level: 3 and up | Series: Viking Kestrel picture books

The lively adventures of the twelve famous little girls and Genevieve, the dog, take us once more to Bemelmans' unique and delightful Paris.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It took Ludwig Bemelmans years to think of Madeline's next adventure after the 1939 original Madeline, but he did it, and the result was Madeline's Rescue, winner of the 1954 Caldecott Medal. One day on a walk through Paris (a "twelve little girls in two straight lines" kind of walk), Madeline slips and falls off a bridge right into the Seine. Everyone feared she would be dead, "But for a dog / That kept its head," saving her from a "watery grave." What choice do Madeline and the girls have but to take the heroic pooch home, feed her biscuits, milk, and beef, and name her Genevieve? Sadly, when Lord Cucuface gets wind of the new dog, he decrees that no dogs will be allowed in the "old house in Paris that was covered with vines," and kicks Genevieve out on the street. Madeline vows vengeance, and the girls scour Paris looking for the pup: "They went looking high / and low / And every place a dog might go. / In every place they called her name / But no one answered to the same." As we've come to expect from Bemelmans, all's well that ends well chez Clavel, and young readers will be tickled by this heartwarming, quirky dog story with a surprise finale. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

Review

"In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines." "The illustrations are stunningly beautiful and touchingly eccentric" The Guardian; "No one has ever written more delightful stories..." New York Herald Tribune --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 50 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile; First edition (April 3, 1953)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670447161
• ISBN-13: 978-0670447169
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,744 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

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Justly called classic, July 21, 2000

By 

kennedy19 "kennedy19" (wakefield, ma USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Madeline's Rescue (Viking Kestrel picture books) (Hardcover)

This is probably my favorite of the "Madeline" series for kids. Artistically it is beautiful, mixing expressive and energetic line drawings with the occasional full-color painting quite effectively. The story mixes very comic elements (like the girls all fighting over who will have the dog sleep on their bed, while their harried nurse keeps getting up in the night as always) and elements of true poignancy, like when the dog is lost. We see Madeline in her window looking at the empty streets, sighing "Oh Genevieve, where can you be? Genevieve, please come back to me." The direct, sad, but unsentimental tone of this moment is really moving. Overall, a most satisfying tale indeed, both in story and in art, with a happy ending that is sure to please.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A long-time favorite!, March 5, 2005

By 

c2 (Dublin, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Madeline's Rescue (Paperback)

My sisters and I loved this book when we were small and I'm having fun reading this book to my little one. Poor Madeline, always ornery, never learning, falls into a river and a dog rescues her. It's very sweet to see how the girls fight over the dog but, when she gets out one night and returns, there was enough "hound to go around," as the book says when dear Genevieve has a litter of puppies, one for each girl. This is a darling classic and quite worthy of the Caldecott Award it received.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Madeline's Rescue, October 2, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Madeline's Rescue (Paperback)

Madeline's Rescue is about a little girl named Madeline who lives in a shelter with 12 other girls. She was not afraid of anything until one day she fell in the water, and a dog jumped in and saved her. They decided to keep the dog and name it Genevieve. And the struggles in this story teach kids to stand up for what they believe in even if other people think that you are wrong. Its for kids about 3-7 because its just one of the many wonderful children's books that is a great bedtime story because it never gets old!