The book, Madeline, written by Ludwig Bemelmans is a great example of a picture story book. What makes a picture story book is the connection between the story and the illustrations. They work together on each page to tell a story. One could not exist without the other or the whole story would not truly be told.
The book Madeline tells the story of a young girl who lives in Paris with twelve other little girls and Miss Clavel. Madeline is not afraid of anything and likes to play tricks. One night however, she becomes ill and has to go to the hospital to get her appendix out. She stays in the hospital for ten days and then the other eleven girls come to visit. They see that Madeline is fine and they are glad she is feeling better. They are amazed with all the toys and candy Madeline has and she shows off her scar that she got from the surgery. Once the girls leave and go back to the house, they all pretend that their stomachs hurt and they want their appendix out too! Miss Clavel tells them to be thankful that they are well and to go to sleep. "And that is all there is - there isn't anymore".
This book shows the importance of the connection between text and illustrations. There is very little text written on each page. The majority of each page is made up of the illustrations. The text is only seen at the very bottom of the page. Without the illustrations the reader would fully understand the story. The text does not specify that the girls live in a girls home with a Nun, only from the illustrations do you see this information. Without the illustrations one might think that the other eleven girls were her sisters and they would not have any idea who Miss Clavel was.
This book, Madeline has been very popular ever since it came out in 1939. In 1952 Madeline was made into a short film shown in cinemas. Then again in 1998 it was made into a feature film. It was also made into a TV series for HBO in 1989. The book was award the Caldecott Honor Award by the American Library Association.
Bemelmans, Ludwig. Madeline. 1. New York, New York: The Viking Press, 1939.
No comments:
Post a Comment