Madeline

By Ludwig Bemelmans

Original copyright 1939

Madeline turns 75 years old this year, yet she remains the spunky little girl many have learned to love through her starring role in picture books.  

Bemelmans crafted a short, timeless story of twelve little girls in a Paris boarding school and their loving teacher, Miss Clavel.  Always fearless and curious, Madeline, the smallest, 

was not afraid of mice – she loved winter, snow, and ice. To the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just said, ‘Pooh-pooh.’

One night, poor Madeline awakens the school with cries of pain.  She is rushed to the hospital to have her appendix out.  With Madeline recovering in the hospital, Miss Clavel decides to take the rest of the classmates to visit her.  At first, the other girls are timid about their visit, yet they soon see the toys and candy Madeline has received and are jealous of the scar on her stomach.  

When, in the middle of the night, Miss Clavel hears the cries of eleven little girls, all wanting to have their appendixes out, she comforts them with her now famous words,       

      

’Good night, little girls!  Thank the Lord you are well!  And now go to sleep’, said  

 Miss Clavel.

Madeline’s popularity is due in part to her bravery and strength of spirit, the strongest in the class even though she is smallest in stature.  What child wouldn’t want some of that dauntlessness?  To read about a little girl facing a scary hospital stay all alone inspires the reader to face scary situations head-on.  

I’m reminded of stories of my Dad.  At the time this book was written, he was the smallest in his class.  Yet his yearbook pictures attest to his spunk.  He tried out for the football team, performed front and center on the stage, and energetically led the crowd in cheers.  

Lesson learned from Madeline and my Dad:  Don’t be intimidated by anyone or anything that you perceive to be bigger than you.