Madeline's Christmas
It's Christmas Eve in Paris and 11 of the girls in two straight lines, as well as their beloved Miss Clavel, are sick in bed. Madeline, everyone's favorite smallest one, is the only one left standing and so she bravely gives up her chance to go home for Christmas in order to bring tea and tissues to her friends. When the old house covered with vines is also covered with snow thanks to a storm, it looks like the holiday won't be very merry until the girls' own Christmas angel shows up to make things right. Based on Ludwig Bemelmans's book, the story and little-girl French accents couldn't be more charming.
Madeline and the Toy Factory
Miss Clavel takes her class to visit a toy factory owned by an old friend. But while the old pals chat, the red-haired smallest one leaps onto the doll conveyor belt and before one can say "Oh, Madeline!" she is boxed up with the rest of the dolls and shipped off to a toy store. The mother of an ailing girl purchases her to lift her daughter's spirits, which, of course, the amazingly lifelike doll does. Miss Clavel and company track down their missing schoolgirl, leaving the sickly girl even more bereft, until Madeline finds a way to make it up to her. Like the others in this series, this one is based on Ludwig Bemelmans's book of the same name and features Christopher Plummer narrating Madeline's gentle lesson that people's feelings are more important than playing games. --Kimberly Heinrichs
