Eloise (1955)

The story of Eloise, a rich girl living with her Nanny in the Plaza, while her parents are away away on business.I liked the whole book but I especially liked the fold out elevator, it was fun to track her movements up and down.It is a very interactive book. ( )

Henry James would want to study her. Queen Victoria would recognize her as an Equal. The New York Jets would want to have her on their side. Lewis Carroll would love her (once he got over the initial shock). She knows everything about The Plaza. She is interested in people when they are not boring. She has Inner Resources."If you take her home with you, you will always be glad you did. "

As an only daughter of a single musician dad at her age, I was more than a bit of an Eloise. Madeline was always the more admirable character - maybe it was the structure, or the fact that she actually lived in France - but Eloise's hijinks seemed like the kind of thing that every 6-year-old would do, given the chance. She was Fancy Nancy, before Fancy Nancy. (Or maybe FN is Eloise trying to imitate Madeline - but that's another book review.) I like Eloise, because unlike a lot of kid's books these days (I thinking here of David Shannon's "No, David" in particular, and similar works), Eloise is unconventional and spunky throughout, and does NOT end up ultimately tamed by the adults around her. Do you think she grew up and became Auntie Mame? ( )

A fun book for kids, though for me I couldn't stop thinking that Eloise might need some Valium for her ADD. ( )

I encountered this book when I was a kid, but old enough to be reading chapter books. I loved it, but I think my mom felt it was beneath my reading skills. Nevertheless, I love it. So often books from a child's POV are saccharin and dumb, but Eloise is so perfectly real, a bratty, neglected, feral child.

I absolutely love Hilary Knight's drawings, and they're perfect. ( )