Madeline in America: And Other Holiday Tales

Alas, this seems like ersatz Madeline--but try telling that to the hordes of Madeline fans who will clamor for it. As a note explains, during the 1950s Bemelmans drafted a Madeline adventure set in Texas at Christmas and featuring the department store owned by his friend Stanley Marcus; a version was passed out to Neiman-Marcus customers, and Bemelmans abandoned the project. Here his grandson supplies his own color illustrations for the discarded text; the quantum difference between Bemelman's offhand genius and the product here is revealed with a simple comparison of sketches drawn by Bemelmans, reproduced on the back of the jacket, with the extrapolations inside. The text, clearly a work in progress, splices together a story line from Madeline and the Gypsies with a cowboy motif and a big promotion for ""the world's greatest store""; the heroine, inheriting a Texas-size fortune, seems unlike the ""real"" Madeline (""And there'll be no more school, that is the best part./ For who is rich is already smart,"" opines this impostor). Two other Bemelmans tales with Christmas settings are also included, with art similarly refurbished by Marciano. Ages 5-8. (Oct.)