Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Madlenka by Peter Sis

“The text placing is NOT conventional!” Fresh off the 2026 American Library Association we’re happy to discuss our very first Peter Sis title. We’re going to begin our Sisification with one of his (relatively) younger books. In its heyday, I recall that New York Public Library absolutely adored this book. They loved its multicultural take and feel. But if we’ve learned anything from Schoolhouse Rock and other early attempts at diversity, sometimes such things age less well than we’d like. Will Madlenka suffer the same fate? Only one way to find out!

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

For the record, the speeches were all incredible at the last Newbery/Caldecott Banquet. Each and every one of them a shining star. NONE of them were too long. They knew what they were doing. Catia Chen, Renee Watson, and Candace Fleming, we salute you.

Here is the Peter Sis poster that haunts my childhood. By gum, I’m gonna meet this guy someday.

Cylindrical projection or fish-eye lens view of how the block changes? You decide.

This image shows why this is a lapsit book and not so much a read-to-a-large-group book.

I absolutely adore the fact that Struwwelpeter makes a little cameo of his own.

One of the big honking flaws in the book is, of course, the fact that the European nations get called out by name, but people from South America, Asia, and Africa just get named by their continents.

This is evident in the map of the world as well. What was going on with this?

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Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate