Happy Tuesday everyone!  Last week we discussed how Ramona was an accidental character created by Beverly Cleary for the book Henry Huggins.  So fun.

This week's trivia comes from my IG friend Patty, who shared this tidbit of information with me a few weeks ago when I shared a collage of books with snow pictures in them.

What author/illustrator painted scenes of New York's Central Park & in 1947 the scenes were used as murals on the wall of a bar in the Hotel Carlyle in NYC?

 In 2021, the Hotel Carlyle re-opened their restaurant under the name Dowling’s.  They brought in five never before seen murals of Madeline works by Ludwig Bemelmans which they purchased at auction for $422,800.  These are in addition to the Bemelmans murals found in the hotel's bar of scenes from Central Park which have been there since 1947. Central Park located a block from the hotel.

Madeline was first published in 1939 & has been a favorite of each generation since it was published.  A total of six books about Madeline were published by Bemelmans. Ludwig Bemelmans said that the French schoolgirl was inspired by his mother, wife and daughter. “But", his grandson wrote after his death, “certainly it was also part Bemelmans himself — the smallest in class, the one always in trouble.” (Taken from The New York Times article dated April 27, 2018).

What is your favorite Madeline book?

To view a selection of Madeline books in the shop, click here.