Eloise by Kay Thompson

Image Credit: BarnesandNoble.com

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Thompson, Kay. 1955. Eloise. Ill. by Hilary Knight. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. ISBN 067122350X

2. PLOT SUMMARY
In this sixty year old picture book, Kay Thompson brings to life a rather loquacious character by the name of Eloise. Eloise, who is all of six years old, lives in a posh hotel called The Plaza Hotel located in New York. Although she lives with her nanny on the top floor, Eloise is free to roam the entire building. She tells the audience about her many adventures within the walls of The Plaza. Eloise describes the games she plays using the elevator and the joy of room service that she loves so much. Eloise speaks of her pets, toys, nanny, tutor, and daily routines sporadically jumping from one topic to another. She knows the employees personally and shares her encounters with them. Extroverted Eloise, a self proclaimed nuisance, simply delights in describing her life and shenanigans in The Plaza Hotel to her audience.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
By today’s standards, this book is rather lengthy for a picture book. It consists of sixty-five pages that may be a bit too long for a preschooler. It is better suited for readers in elementary school or older. Kay Thompson writes from a six year old’s point of view and uses a six old’s vocabulary. Her sentences are easy to understand, and they reveal so much of Eloise’s personality. With the exception of some quotation marks and a few commas, Kay Thompson does not use punctuation in her book. Young readers may have trouble deciphering where the sentences end.
.
Hillary Knight uses only shades of pink, black, and gray in all of her illustrations. He draws cartoon like pictures with some fine details such as individual strands of hair and the pattern on a turtle’s back. When Eloise imagines things, Hillary Knight draws those items using pink outlines, making it easy to distinguish the imaginative creatures from the real things. The facial expressions are also easy to interpret.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
School Library Journal - ““Eloise is an icon of New York, a classic character who has represented the verve and excitement of Manhattan for generations of readers,” Paul LeClerc

5. CONNECTIONS
• This book could be used in a class lesson on punctuation. Students could tell what kind of punctuation is needed throughout the book or portions at a time.
• Eloise could be paired up with other books that have young humorous female characters.
Cabot, Meg. ALLIE FINKLE’S RULES FOR GIRLS; BK 2. ISBN 9780545040495
Park, Barbara. JUNIE B. JONES AND THE STUPID SMELLY BUS. ISBN 0679826424