Madeline (children's book)
Madeline is the name of the eponymous heroine and at the same time the name of a children's book, the rhyming text and the illustrations of which are by Ludwig Bemelmans , an American author of Austrian origin.
Madeline is a seven to eight year old girl, red-haired, brave, and sociable. She is the smallest of her group in a small Catholic boarding school for girls in Paris and has various adventures. In the first volume of the series, she survived a dangerous appendicitis . Madeline is mothered by her friendly teacher, Miss Clavel, a nun. Her best friend and lifesaver will be the dog Genevieve in a later volume, an enormously intelligent animal that even masters juggling and arithmetic and saves Madeline from drowning. Other common characters are Pepito, the son of the Spanish ambassador, and an elderly lord, the chairman of the school's board of directors.
Madeline was first published in 1939 and was the first book in a successful series. The book series continues today; the author is currently the grandson of the first author, John Bemelmans-Marciano. The book series formed the basis of a television series and was also made into a film. As a result, appropriate merchandising of dolls, games, videos, etc.