Madlenka

Young Madlenka sets out to share the good news - she has a loose tooth! - in this engaging picture-book from the talented Peter Sis, visiting all of her many neighbors in the diverse New York City neighborhood she calls home. From Mr. Gaston, the French baker, to Mr. Singh, the Indian newspaper seller, from Mr. Eduardo, the greengrocer, to Mrs. Kham the shopkeeper, Madlenka moves from friend to friend, and from culture to culture, receiving congratulations and good wishes from all, and becoming Madeleine, Madela, Magdalena and Mandala in turn, until, returning home, she is Madlenka again.

As a celebration of diversity, Madelenka is immensely appealing, highlighting the many cultures to be found on one small block in the city of New York. show more I did wonder a bit (as I see, have other reviewers) at Sis' decision to describe some of Madlenka's neighbors by their national affiliation (India, Germany, France) and others by their regional one (Latin America, Asia), as I think this is rather confusing. Mrs. Kham is clearly meant to be Tibetan, for instance, so why is she described as "Asian," when Mr. Singh is described as "Indian?" Leaving this inconsistency aside, I enjoyed Madlenka's "world tour," and the idea, implicit in the story, that knowing people from different cultures can enrich one's life. The artwork is, as can be expected, this being Peter Sis, outstanding! Fine etching-like details, sometimes dizzying perspectives, and exciting cut-outs all combine, creating pages that young children will enjoy turning, and poring over. Highly recommended to anyone looking for good children's stories set in New York City, or to fan of Peter Sis! show less

I loved this amazingly adorable, heartwarming book! The perspective drawings of little Madlenka looking up at the big buildings, the remembrance of what it was like to have a wiggling tooth, the creative cut-out openings in pages that draw the reader's eye to a new angle of Madlenka, and the incorporation of multiple ethnicities within Madlenka's New York City block yield a story full of the excitement of newness and joy of life.

Curricular connections: The pages of the book that tell of the countries, foods, and symbols of her neighbors who are from France, India, Italy, Latin America, Africa, and Asia have multiple images that young children could study.

The cover art and short synopsis in no way prepared me for the astounding quality of the work found in this book. Madlenka is a little girl living in the heart of New York City, and one of her teeth is coming loose. She's so excited about this sign of her growing to be a big girl that she rushes out to inform all the various shopkeepers around her block of the exciting news. These shopkeepers are from all corners of the world, from the French pâtissier, to the Italian ice-cream truck man, to the Indian newsstand vendor and so on. As she meets with each of the shopkeepers, she learns about their different cultures. There are two illustration styles, with Madlenka rendered in pastel colours in what appears to also be a pastel medium, and show more each of the double page illustrations describing what each culture has to offer in a richly detailed and gorgeously deeply coloured etching approach. This makes for quite an astounding contrast and shows a high level of sophistication. Excellent. show less

Madlenka by Peter Sis is the story of a young girl who lives in New York City, possibly on the same block as St. John's Park. She has awoken to her first wiggly tooth and decides to share her news with all her neighbors.

As Madlenka walks around the block to greet her neighbors her imagination transports her to magical places based somewhat on her actual location. Being a kid in New York, she has an ethnically diverse set of neighbors. They are from places like India, Tibet, South America, Germany, and so forth. Each neighbor gives a chance for Sis to introduce facts about another part of the world.

The artwork that accompanies the text is magical. It's not realistic by any sense but it captures Madlenka's enthusiasm and imagination show more perfectly. There are also pages with cutouts to allow part of the next page's artwork to show through. Also, there are some larger pages to unfold revealing panoramas during some of the dream sequences. show less

When Madlenka, who lives in a vibrant and culturally diverse New York City neighbourhood has a loose tooth, she decides to visit her many friends and tell them of this news. Her visiting makes her late, and when her worried parents ask their daughter where she he has been, Madlenka replies that she has been on a trip around the world (and that she has finally lost her tooth).

I love the premise of this sparsely narrated, lushly illustrated picture book. There is enough textual information provided (like the idea of Madlenka's loose tooth, the different greetings of Madlenka's diverse friends, bonjour, sathsariakal, buon giorno, guten Tag, hola, tashi delek), but much of the details, much of the cultural information is presented with and show more by the colourful illustrations. I believe children will love poring over the many small images, as well as attempting to located objects, stories, culturally significant buildings in the full-page picture spreads.

However, as someone who has always had some difficulty successfully locating hidden objects in picture puzzles, I find it kind of frustrating that author/illustrator Peter Sis has not included a list of items to be found, to be located (at the back of the book), as I am sure I missed quite a number of them. But even more than a list of searchable images/articles, what [b:Madlenka|982432|Madlenka|Peter Sís|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317064237s/982432.jpg|2897680] is truly missing, is additional cultural and geographic information on the diverse items and scenes depicted (both the obvious ones and the puzzle-like images hidden in the larger illustrations). These will quite likely give rise to both questions and discussions, and additional informative details on, say, the Grimm's fairy tales, the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids of Latin America, Cleopatra and so forth would have changed [b:Madlenka|982432|Madlenka|Peter Sís|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317064237s/982432.jpg|2897680] from an entertaining and moderately informative puzzle-search picture book to an amazing teaching and learning tool, not only for at home, but also in-class use.

About Peter Sis' illustrations, while I think that they are lush, evocative and quite imaginative, I do find some of the colour sequences somewhat visually problematic. For example, the dark gray colour scheme for the full-page illustrated section on France makes it quite difficult for me to distinguish some of the buildings depicted, and I have similar visual issues regarding the full-page spread depicting Germany; the all-green colour scale makes certain of the stories and literary figures rather difficult to distinguish from each other and from the equally green background. Also, I cannot help but wonder if younger children might not potentially be frightened by some of the illustrations (I know that I would have found quite a few of the images, particularly in the German, Asian and Latin American sections rather creepy and frightening as a young child). All in all though, and my disappointment at the lack of supplemental cultural information notwithstanding, I do highly recommend [b:Madlenka|982432|Madlenka|Peter Sís|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317064237s/982432.jpg|2897680] for children interested in world geography and world culture, especially if said children also enjoy hidden-image picture books. show less

“Madlenka” is about a girl with a loose tooth. She goes all around the block that she lives on in New York and tells her friends, who are from all over the world. The story starts by zooming in on the Earth from outer space, to Manhattan, to a neighborhood, to a block, and finally to Madlenka. This begins the interesting perspectives that are used throughout the book. Most pages have text going all the way around the edges, and many have cutouts with views into the origins of her neighbors. The illustrations are beautifully done in muted colors, and change to reflect the styles of the homelands of each of Madlenka's friends. Young children will relate to the excitement of a loose tooth and will love the way the book is structured. show more Parents will like that their children are learning about other cultures. K – 2nd grade. show less

A visual treasure, this book takes the reader on a journey with Madlenka around her neighborhood block on the Lower Eastside of Manhattan. On her trip to show off her loose tooth, Madlenka enjoys sharing the news with the French Baker, Asian shopkeeper, German storyteller, Indian news vendor and more. One gets a taste of city living, the thrill of sharing with friends and the excitement of a loose tooth. Sis' illustrations are charming and surprising. In order to take it all in, the reader needs to read close and sping the book in a circle. Definitely not a natural read-aloud. Better to share with a single friend.