[.ca] Madeline And The Bad Hat (ISBN 0670446149)

From Amazon.com:
One day the Spanish ambassador moves into the Parisian house next door to Miss Clavel, Madeline, and her 11 classmates. And, His Excellency has a boy! Pepito, as he is named, is not just any boy: according to Madeline, he is a "bad hat"--for starters, he's equipped with an irksome slingshot, he "ghosts," and he boasts. And when Miss Clavel gives him a box of tools to function as an "outlet for his energy," he makes a guillotine for the cook's chickens. ("He ate them ROASTED, GRILLED, AND FRITO! Oh what a horror was PEPITO.") Children will love Ludwig Bemelmans's jaunty rhymes and simple, evocative drawings, and the ferocity with which the feisty Madeline suspects, condemns, and rebuffs the boisterous new boy neighbor. In the end, however, everything comes out right, and we, along with Miss Clavel, can relax. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

A change of heart:
Pepito, the boy in this book has a change of heart and goes from being unkind to animals to caring for them. It is a good story. As far as it being "dark" as another reviewer said,well,does that reader eat chickens? That's what Pepito was doing before he learned a new way to live with the animals he came to love.

A Favorite!:
My daughter and I really loved this book! The rhythm of this Madeline book is especially good. It highlights Madeline's courageous, assertive personality as well as her compassionate intuition! A great match with the Madeline movie with Hatty Jones with follows a similiar plot line and is also a family favorite. Enjoy!

A Bit Graphic:
Although my daughter and I love Madeline, this particular book was disturbing. Miss Clavel buys Pepito some tools to give him "an outlet for his energy" and he builds a guillotine to decapitate chickens! He turns a cat loose in the midst of a pack of dogs and is then attacked by the dogs, resulting in a visit from the doctor. In the end, of course, Pepito changes his ways. But it in no way compensated for the fact that the majority of the story was, at best, dark. I don't tend to be faint of heart when it comes to literature, but this was not appropriate for my 4-year-old.