HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Madeline’s Christmas
Author and Illustrator: Ludwig Bemelmans
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, reissued in 2000
ISBN-13: 9780140566505
ISBN-10: 0140566503
Language level: 1 (nothing objectionable)
Reading level: Ages 6-9
Rating: 4 stars (GOOD)
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
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Bemelmans, Ludwig. Madeline’s Christmas (originally published as a special book insert in the 1956 Christmas edition of McCall’s magazine; republished in 1985 by Viking Penguin Inc., 40 W. 23rd St., New York City, NY 10010). Ludwig Bemelmans wrote several books about Madeline, the little French girl who lives at a girls’ school in Paris overseen by a nun. The story of this one takes place on Christmas Eve. If you do not like books that make reference to Christmas, you will want to avoid this book. However, there is nothing specifically religious in it, although there is a bit of “magic.” An Oriental rug merchant/magician sells Madeline twelve rugs to help keep the floor warm for the girls who are all sick. He then returns to buy the rugs back because he is cold, but in thanks for Madeline’s warming him up he makes the rugs fly so that the girls can all visit their parents. I read this book to our younger son Jeremy, then age seven, but he could have read it all by himself.
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