(listen to the podcast review)

Madlenka
By Peter Sis

It all begins with a loose tooth.
A little girl's urge to share the news of this momentous event with the people of her "world"  brings the main character only around her city block but it may as well be the world. For Madlenka's neighborhood in Peter Sis' picture book, Madlenka, is a microcosm of the Flat World where all things are connected. It is a world that is full of richness of characters, and smells and tastes, and most important, stories that transforms the simple act of showing a child's loose tooth into an epic journey across cultures.
The book opens with a wide canvas that shrinks microscopically almost as suddenly as it begins: "In the universe, on a planet, on a continent, in a country, in a city, on a block, in a house, in a window, in the rain ..." and there she is -- the wonderful Madlenka, all smiles as she dashes down the stairs of her apartment building with the need, as Sis writes, "...to tell everyone."
And so, she talks with Mr. Gaston, the French baker, with an array of wonderful pastries and tales of Paris; and she meets up with Mr. Singh, the Indian news stand dealer. She greets Mr. Ciao, in his Italian ice cream truck; and listens to Ms. Grim, of Germany, who engages Madlenka in welcome by telling the girl, "Let me tell you a story."  There are others, too, in Madlenka's world, including her Egyptian friend, Cleopatra, in whose courtyard garden the two friends often play for hours, inventing adventures in deserts, jungles and oceans. Cleopatra responds to the news of the loose tooth with a hip, "Cool baby."
Peter Sis is most effective as an artist in this book, creating large montages of images and text that scrolls around the blocks, forcing the reader to twist the book around and around and around to follow the twisting path of the narrative, giving movement to the flat page. After each encounter with a resident of the block, Sis allows us a window -- literally, it is often an open square or oval into the next page -- where Madlenka's imagination runs wild, if not a bit scary. The images of the stories she is told from her friends in her block are dark and bold, and while the pictures might be a bit frightening for a younger child, there is enough sense of danger to keep even older children engaged.
Madlenka, for one, seems quite at home with these stories and she is often the hero at the center of the escapades.
The book ends as Madlenka realizes that she is late getting back home to her parents. She rushes through the door, where she is met by her silhouetted mother and father, who nervously ask: "Madlenka, where have you been?" to which she replies with cool excitement, "Well, I went around the world ... and I lost my tooth!"