''Madeline's Rescue'' is a children's picture book by

Ludwig Bemelmans Ludwig Bemelmans (April 27, 1898 – October 1, 1962) was an Austrian and American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels. He is known best for the ''Madeline'' picture books. Six were published, the first in 1939. Early li ...

, the second in his ''

Madeline ''Madeline'' is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series and a live action feature fi ...

'' series. Released by

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

, it was the recipient of the

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

for

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

in 1954.American Library Association
Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present
URL accessed 27 May 2009.

Plot

Madeline falls into the

Seine River The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres p ...

one day and is saved by a stray dog. Miss Clavel and the twelve little girls cannot find the owner of the dog, so the girls decide to keep it and name it Genevieve. The problems start to rise when the girls compete for time with Genevieve. Big trouble arrives in their animal-loathing landlord Cucuface, who takes one look at poor Genevieve and has his driver take her away. The girls and Miss Clavel unsuccessfully look for Genevieve. Late that night, Miss Clavel wakes up and finds Genevieve in the light of the doorway. Everyone rejoices Genevieve's return. That night, the girls fight about Genevieve again, causing Miss Clavel to take Genevieve to her own room (but not before warning the girls if one more fight breaks out about Genevieve, she will be given away). Even later that night, Madeline and the girls, with Miss Clavel, find that Genevieve has given birth to eleven puppies.

Adaptations

The book was adapted to television in 1991 by

Cinar The Cookie Jar Group, commonly known as simply Cookie Jar and formerly known as CINAR, was a Canadian animation studio, media production and distribution company that existed from 1976 until it was folded into DHX Media, now WildBrain, on Dec ...

as a half-hour animated special on the Family Channel. The special starred the voices of Marsha Morceau as Madeline and

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage and television. His accolades included an Academy Aw ...

as the narrator, and premiered on June 6. It also expands on the plot following Genevieve giving birth to the puppies with Lord Cucuface giving permission for Genevieve and her puppies to stay after growing fond of one of the puppies and adopting it.

References

{{Caldecott Medal American picture books Caldecott Medal–winning works Children's fiction books 1953 children's books Viking Press books Children's books set in Paris Children's books about dogs