Madlenka by Peter Sis

Full-color pictures by the author

Ages 4-8 / 48 pages
ISBN: 0-374-39969-7 / $17.00
Frances Foster Books
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Book Links Lasting Connection
New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year
Fanfare, The Horn Book's Honor List
Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children

Peeking out through a die-cut window on the jacket, Madlenka invites the reader to enter her world. And what a world it is! On the surface, it looks like an ordinary city block, but as we meet Madlenka's neighbors -- the French baker, the Indian news vendor, the Italian ice-cream man, the Latin American grocer, a retired opera singer from Germany, an African American school friend, and the Asian shopkeeper -- and look through die-cut windows to the images and memories they have carried from old country to new, we can see that Madlenka's block is as richly varied as its inhabitants. And why is Madlenka going around the block, jumping for joy? Her tooth is loose, and she wants everyone to know!

Reviews
"When Madlenka returns home and tells her parents that she 'went all around the world,' readers will feel that they, too, have been armchair travelers, delivered safely home in Sís's capable hands." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The real magic comes in the cleverly cut-away windows in each storefront through which children glimpse complex, global dreamscapes." --Booklist

"Luscious with visual imagery, the imaginative book has much for small children to enjoy now and plenty to appreciate more fully later." --The Horn Book, starred review