Review Detail

Madame Badobedah and the Old Bones

Kids Fiction 279

A Magical Adventure with an Old Friend

May 13, 2024

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

5.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Having made a friend in the retired dancer and actress Madame Badobedah (Ba DOO beh dah) who lives in the Mermaid Hotel her parents manage, Mabel now has a comfortable routine with her new friend. The hotel is filled with all manner of quirky characters, and Mabel takes it upon herself to keep everyone in line. Mabel and Madame liek to go "larking" and enjoy digging up treasures that are buried on the beach. While they've never found treasures, Mabel does find a small, old coin. Having tea back in Madame's room, Mabel gets to choose a drawer in Madame's vast dressing table to open, and having done so, the two travel through the magic closet to return an object. They end up in the Natural History Museum, where some of the dinosaurs talk to them. Unfortunately, they have set off an invisible alarm system, and must hurry back to the warm hotel room to think about their adventures. Mabel enjoys her adventures with the former "evil villain", and looks forward to new ones.

Good Points

This is a longer picture book, something along the lines of Rumer Godden's Holly and Ivy or McPhail's Truffle: A Dog (and Cat) Story and would be more of a beginning chapter book if the trim size were smaller and there were fewer pictures. The illustrations have a 1920s feel to them, and since Madame has gone to the US to escape a war, that is a likely era.

This was delightfully quirky in a particularly British way, although Madame Badobedah would be right at home with MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle or Henn's Bad Nana. The magical closet and ensuing adventures will encourage young readers to come up with imaginative journeys of their own... perhaps AFTER they've had their elevenses!