MERCI, MADELINE!

Spotlight

Are you mortified that your godson talks back to his teacher? Appalled that your niece kicks her cat? On the verge of joining No Kidding—the anti-child group—even though you have offspring of your own? Help has arrived in the form of Madeline Says Merci (Viking), a gently instructive "always-be-polite book," nimbly written and adroitly illustrated by John Bemelmans Marciano, the 31-year-old grandson of the invincible redhead's creator, Ludwig Bemelmans. Explains Marciano, who first revived his grandfather's plucky heroine for 1999's Madeline in America (Scholastic), "This is not an etiquette manual. It's a book about kindness—the important basis of good manners." Ever since her 1939 debut, Madeline has been an ideal bearer of this message, Marciano suggests, because she incarnates a golden mean between individuality and conformity. "Madeline follows the rules, and dresses like the others," he

says. But her observance of convention "only serves to accentuate what really sets her apart—the strength of her character."

Forgoing an early aspiration to write comic books, Marciano tried newspaper reporting and CD-ROM designing before discovering several years ago that he had an uncanny "talent for drawing in my grandfather's style." Like most gifts, however, his is a mixed blessing. "It's time to move away from Madeline," he says. Among the more "obscure things" he is now in the process of developing in his rural New Jersey studio are Delilah, a pastoral tale about a misguided lamb, and a darker, urban allegory for older readers about a naive squirrel and a scheming rat. Meanwhile, Marciano is hopeful about Madeline Says Merci's civilizing possibilities. "If repeated exposure to violent video games inspires kids to kill, maybe bombarding them regularly with a book about politeness will have the same kind of cumulative effect."

AMY FINE COLLINS