Madeline and the Bad Hat

I'm surprised this book isn't better known, given the popularity of the original Madeline book. The message of the story was ahead of its time. My family enjoyed this book much more than "Madeline's Rescue".

The only other Madeline book that I had read besides "Madeline" was "Madeline's Rescue," although I knew there were other books out there about Ludwig Bemelmans' precocious young girl who lived in an old house in Paris that was covered with vines. So reading "Madeline and the Bad Hat" was a new experience. Still, I have no explanation for why I did not recognize the idiom of "a bad hat" as a colloquialism for an unscrupulous person, even though I feel like I should. In "Madeline and the Bad Hat," the Spanish Ambassador moves into the house next door to where Miss Clavel and the twelve little girls in two straight lines live. Miss Clavel is excited to see that His Excellency has a boy, but Madeline knows as soon as she sees him that this little boy is a Bad Hat and his actions prove her right. We know that boys will be boys, but apparently that means being mean, at least for Pepito (which we eventually discover is the young boy's name). Miss Clavel finally decides that the boy needs an outlet for his energy, and so she gets him a chest of tools, thinking that "might be attractive, For a little boy that's very active." But Pepito reduces Madeline and the other little girls to tears by building himself a guillotine and while we do not actually see it in action the device is clearly used to cut the heads off of the chickens the cook is preparing for dinner. Pepito clearly deserves a comeuppance and what is surprising is not that he gets one, but that it is rather painful. One day while Miss Clavel and the twelve little girls are out for a walk, they spot Pepito carrying a bulging sack. They follow him and discover that all of the dogs in the neighborhood are following him as well, because of what is in the sack. Now, the key educational part of this book, besides the illustrations showing interesting parts of Paris, is that we learn that you have to cry "AU SECOURS" if by any chance you are ever in need of help in France. That means that once again Miss Clavel has to run fast and faster. What happens is a transforming event, turning the former Barbarian into a Vegetarian. Bemelmans turns everything around so that young readers can clearly see the differences in Pepito before and after. There are three times as many full color illustrations in this 1956 story as there was in the original "Madeline," mainly because Bemelmans uses the artwork to depict scenes other than the characters out and about in Paris. I wish I could figure out the logic to why some art is mostly yellow and others are full color, but so far nothing makes sense. As always, the childlike illustrations are so captivating because Bemelmans' art always seems like advanced scribbling. My only complaint is that Madeline takes a back seat to Pepito in this story. She comments on his behavior, but does not actively participate in his reformation. But we have to wait for her next outing, "Madeline's Rescue," to be back on more appropriate ground.

Pepito, the boy in this book has a change of heart and goes from being unkind to animals to caring for them. It is a good story. As far as it being "dark" as another reviewer said,well,does that reader eat chickens? That's what Pepito was doing before he learned a new way to live with the animals he came to love.

My daughter and I really loved this book! The rhythm of this Madeline book is especially good. It highlights Madeline's courageous, assertive personality as well as her compassionate intuition! A great match with the Madeline movie with Hatty Jones with follows a similiar plot line and is also a family favorite. Enjoy!