Madlenka

by Peter Sís

Book Overview

A trip around a city block is like a trip around the world Peeking out through a die-cut window on the jacket, Madlenka invites the reader to enter her world. And what a world it is On the surface, it looks like an ordinary city block, but as we meet Madlenka's neighbors -- the French baker, the Indian news vendor, the Italian ice-cream man, the Latin American grocer, a retired opera singer from Germany, an African American school friend, and the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374399697
• ISBN13: 9780374399696
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Frances Foster Books
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 10.4" x 10.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

I don't know Sis, but I know good books for children!

To read many of the reviews, you might think this was a lengthy volume of work, in order for it to "take us around the world". It does it's job in as few words as possible, and can be read easily to young children or savored. A child in my preschool class recently shared this book and I am now ordering it as a "must have" for my classroom. Particularly required if you live in or near New York City.

Balance at last

With "Madlenka," Sis finally finds a balance between his more elaborate and complex work (his books "Tibet Through the Red Box" and "The Three Golden Keys" were actually fine art books better appreciated by adults than by children) and his accessible children's stories ("Rainbow Rhino," "Fire Truck"). What we get is a book that is visually ornate, but which carries with it a concept simple enough to catch the fancy of a young audience. I've been waiting for this one.

A Trip Around the World

Madlenka lives in New York City and one day finds that her tooth wiggles. It is loose and she has to show and tell everyone she knows. So she travels around her city block, showing all her friends...Mr Gaston, the French baker, who has told her all about Paris as he bakes; Mr Singh, the news vendor from India, who has told her about elephants; Mr Ciao, the Italian ice-cream man, who has told her all about Italy and spaghetti and Mrs Grimm, Mr Eduardo, her school friend, Cleopatra and Mrs Kham...When Madlenka's mother asks her where she has been, she thinks and replies "Well...I went around the world." And lucky us, we got to go too! Peter Sis' charming, gentle text is only outdone by his very special, expressive artwork. As Madlenka talks with each friend, we look through a cut-out window on the page, for a glimpse of their country, then turn the page for a more expansive view. You and your children will be entranced, time and again, with the details of each picture. A MUST for all home libraries, Madlenka will delight and amuse youngsters of all ages, as they travel the world.

Magical -- caught my 6-year-old's imagination

This was a gift from our literate Tooth Fairy, and has been a big bedtime-story hit. Wiggly-toothed Madlenka is so excited that she runs around her neighborhood, showing neighbors and vendors from many different countries the new gap in her smile. The illustrations are stunning, and the idea of traveling around the world in a single city block (especially by "jumping" through cut-out windows into different countries) really mesmerized my daughter. Be prepared for a lot of discussion of how the pictures' details represent different countries (Roman cats, German Valkyries, Mayan jungle temples) and for circling the book around to read the wraparound captions on some of the illustrations. A winner.

Sis' Zen and Childishness

How can a tooth bring you the whole world? How do you look at your neigorhood? How do you treat the trivia in the life?I was firstly astonished at Sis' exquisite lines. My art teacher told me that this is a Zen's work (under a condition of entering into the deepest, stillest condition of self). You'll see the globe, then gradually shrink your focus to the continent, the city, and neiborhood, the building, ... After we find Madlenka with a shaking tooth, she will bring us to the whole world.