Did you grow up reading about the twelve little girls in two straight lines, and that old house that they lived in, covered with vines? I treasured my Madeline books, so I was curious when I saw that Madeline author, Ludwig Bemelmans, had a grandson who was taking up the Madeline torch and continuing the stories.

You never know when a remake is going to be great or going to be something you wish never happened as to not tarnish the image of the original in your mind. (I'm looking at you, sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird.) I love the originals so much that reading a new Madeline story had me a bit nervous. But, rejoice! I liked them, and my preschooler found them just as entertaining as the originals.

John Bemelmans Marciano is the grandson of the original author, and he has written three new Madeline stories: Madeline in Rome, Madeline at the White House, and this one, Madeline and the Old House in Paris.

In this story, Lord Cucuface, that meddlesome, snooty-tooty, sometimes mean Head of School, pays the girls a visit. While he is inspecting the place, he discovers a beautiful, old telescope and decides to take it home.

With the telescope gone, the girls start to hear strange, ghastly noises coming from the attic. They investigate to find that the ghost of a scientist haunts their house, and he wants his telescope back! Fortunately, he is a friendly ghost, and Madeline and Pepito (the bad hatted boy next door) hatch a plan to get that telescope back!

I found the writing style with its bouncy fun rhymes to be just like the originals, maybe even, dare I say it, a little better because it was a tad more on the modern side. It used the type of language we use today, so my preschooler understood the rhymes better. The illustrations aren't quite as detailed as the originals, but they still bring us into that Madeline, Parisian world. We really enjoyed it.