ELOISE by Kay Thompson

Thompson, Kay. Kay Thompson’s Eloise:  a book for precocious grown ups. Ill. by Hilary Knight. New York:  Simon and Schuster. 1955. ISBN 06067122350x

Eloise is coming up on her 60^th birthday soon, but somehow I missed her when I was growing up.  She lives in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, and wreaks havoc as only a precocious, bored, and unattended six year old can.  Her parents are off making money in the corporate world, leaving Eloise with her Nanny whom she loves.  And why not!  Nanny lets her get away with, well, that’s what the story is about.  The illustrations by Hilary Knight are detailed pen and ink drawings embellished with a splash of pink.   It reflects its 1955 publishing date.  The copious 65 pages of illustrations accompany the small print text and difficult vocabulary.  Thus I agree it was written for “precocious grown ups.”

Eloise reminds me of Barbara Park’s  Junie B Jones with her funny antics and mischief making, however, I did not find Eloise quite as endearing as Junie B.  Eloise is the epitome of a spoiled brat, and thus I did not find her very loveable.  Although the kindergartners I teach are somewhat scandalized by Junie’s language (the d-word, “dumb” and the s-word, “stupid”), I imagine they would be appalled at the disrespect Eloise shows to people, places, and things, not to mention her frequent expressions of “O my Lord.”

 Elizabeth Bird of fuse#8 fame noted in her 2012 article, The Top 100 Picture Books (blogs.slj.com), that Eloise has slipped in her classic ranking from #37 to #76.  I think this may be partly due to the many references to things that a child today would most likely not relate to such as “witch hazel,” “cod liver oil,” “corset,” “garters,” and the TV favorite of the 50’s, “Howdy Doody,” (which Eloise hates).  I think Eloise has had her day.