Knight smartly distinguishes this book from New York by introducing blue as Paris' thematic color. In the Plaza, Eloise's world is white, black and pink. The curvy, trembly lines fit Eloise's dash and dart style very well as she, Nanny, Weenie and Skipperdee skibble over Paris. Thompson's text is delightfully coupled with Hilary Knight's drawings. Again, her style triumphs over narrow fidelity of meaning. Plenty of French phrases fall off Eloise's tongue she translates for you, and she's mostly accurate. Pas de quoi, it's delicious to say, especially when you want to bumfuddle someone. Eloise's personal vocabulary contains 'skibble,' 'granning' and, my favorite, 'sklathe.' I interpret it as a verb connoting an extreme, ele- gawnt way of positioning your body, probably prone. I find that kids, rappers, and foreigners are the best smashers and innovators of tired language. Thompson nails that exuberant loquaciousness, which sticks to impressions and ignores veracity. Humiliated, I vowed never again to be that grammatically exposed. My teacher ruthlessly crushed my aspirations by pointing out that it was just one loooooooooong run on sentence with a solitary period. I remember proudly finishing my first short story ever in the first grade: it had plot, dialogue and a twist! (Yes, I was quite the Margot Tenenbaum-minus the eyeliner and creepy brotherly love.) I even folded the pages and stapled it to mimic grownupped-ness. This is evident in the breathless, tumbling dice style of storytelling that belongs to children. She has plenty of money but apart from that she struck me as a neglected child, whom despite receiving no attention, love or stability from her parents was basically a kind and happy person. Reading through reviews I was surprised how many found Eloise spoilt and horrible. It's quite a long book and one I think would make a good book to read alone for a child, there's so much to look at, each page is packed with illustrations. There are lots of French words and expressions that were an enjoyable addition to this story. We see no parents in this story only a nanny who seems kind and tolerant. Although reading this as an adult I became a little tired of the frenetic adventures of Eloise, I know as a child I would have enjoyed these humourous cartoon -like illustrations.Įloise is a young girl who does everything at top speed with the utmost enthusiasm accompanied by a stream of consciousness and several animal companions. I was lucky enough to find a 1958 hardback edition of this book in a charity shop recently.

Eloise by Kay Thompson