The Absolutely Essential 50th Anniversary Edition

This book is horrible. Eloise is a spoiled rich kid who is petulant and obnoxious. She commonly denigrates the people around her as being "dumb," etc. Her mischief and temper tantrums are recounted without disapproval. The book is punctuated with frequent, unnecessary "for Lord's sake" comments that may offend many. There is nothing in this book that I want my children exposed to. I look forward to reading about Eloise as a teen, when she becomes the next Lindsay Lohan, due to growing up without responsibility and with a total sense of entitlement.

I have a brand new granddaughter, Eloise, and I can think of no better gift than the magic of a book about Eloise. It is a magical story for every girl. A love of reading is the best gift I could wish for her.

I would NEVER recommend this book to anyone. Not only does it have references to alcohol and cigarettes, there are plenty of words that are not spelled right in any language, half of the sentences are not full sentences and they don't make any sense. Poorly written, poorly edited. I stopped halfway and just started to make up my own story because what I was reading was awful on so many levels. I was really wanting it to be a cute book.

What I find astonishingly odd about this book is that Eloise's mother invites her to Paris. Eloise and Nanny, tres excited, fly to Paris. They see all the sights. Never once do we see Eloise's mother. In fact, Eloise and her Nanny stay in a hotel by themselves. Odd. Very Odd.

But it's fun to see and hear Eloise learn French, and I enjoyed the humor provided by the illustrations. There is too much repetition, but the character of Eloise is tres engaging.

This is the typical cute Eloise stories, but in a longer verson. My daughter who loves Eloise got board with the first story half way through. She is young and is getting used to longer stories, but even I was glad when she said she did not want to hear anymore for that night.

I Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove the books
i got my first eloise book when i was 6, and i am now 13 and last year i got my first eloise doll.
i think the book has no age limits, as kay thompson wrote in the front cover of "Eloise" the first book "a book for precious grown-ups".
my mum still sometimes borrows my copy to read.
there are alot of things in it that you dont pick up on the first time you read it, and only now am i getting some of the jokes in it.
i agree, to hard for a 4 year old, but it should go from 6-106 years old.
once you have met eloise, she stays in your family forever.
(go to [...] for more eloise stuff, and also [...] is good too!)

This is a wonderful book with delightful illustrations. My three year old loves the Eloise character. The stories are unique, but, as written, are a little hard to follow. I would reccomend the book as a wonderful keepsake and reminder of "Eloise."

Eloise gets a telegram one day from her mum inviting her and Nanny to come over to Paris. Eloise can't wait. She falls onto the French capital like an American storm and goes just about everywhere. She dines, sightsees, meets locals, gets a dress made just for her by none other than M. Dior, and she eats so much she gains "rawther" a lot of weight. In the end, Eloise misses the Plaza and is happy about her return home to New York. In a nice touch, in the doorway above the famous old hotel Eloise and Nanny call home, a big banner hangs, and it reads, "Welcome Back Eloise!" Eloise has gone full circle and we feel we've taken every galloping step along the way with her. Yet another fun and charming volume in the Eloise series from Kay Thompson and Hillary Knight!

Eloise is a classic. That is that it has withstood the test of time and remained in the heart of many as they have moved from childhood to adulthood. It does create a lasting impression, no matter what age you are and that is pretty important in a book. The illustrations are great. Mostly black and white line drawings with plenty of character and imagination. But if you really take the story line at face value it is about a pretty sad little girl, lonely, bored, spoiled and hyper-active. I bought this book through the store for my daughter, but after reading it I wrapped it up to give to my mother-in-law instead. I don't really want my daughter to be exposed to Eloise's behavior and lifestyle until she is old enough to see her as more of a sad 'orphan like' character, than a lucky kid that gets to have and do whatever she wants due to lack of love and supervision. As an adult I rather appreciate the silly humour, the lively illustrations and the Grand Hotel setting. But I see this as more of a book for the kid inside of 'grown-ups' than for the kid in my child.

I purchased this book for my granddaughter, and almost couldn't give it to her because I wanted to keep it for myself! It has the traditional Eloise stories, which are great, but the real jewel here is the back section of the book. In this section you'll find photos of many of the Eloise products through the years, and a lovely history of the little girl and how she grew to be America's most precocious, most lovable six year old.

My daughters (4 & 6) "love, love, love" Eloise. The book is a classic and would be a great gift for girls 4-8. Eloise lives with her nanny in a posh New York hotel and her antics get her into trouble. She is unique, independent, curious, inventive, creative, sleuthy & oblivious. The line art is fun and adds detail to her antics. We like the Essential Eloise best, followed by Paris. Be aware that the "newer" Eloise books are based on the classics but are not the originals.

I love Kay Thompson and ordered this for my great-niece without ever having read an Eloise book. It certainly has the feel of a different era (one moment of Eloise swatting the doctor and him ordering a Johnny Walker Black) but the flair, exhuberance and open personality of Eloise makes it "tres drole". Just remember to read it fast and without taking a breath. Pure fun.

I read Eloise (at the Plaza) and Eloise in Paris - all 'very much' Kay. I loved that woman - a very good friend of my mom's. I worked with/for her when (as a teenager) I did her musical arrangements and orchestrations for her fabulous act with The Williams Brothers - which opened in Vegas and played all over the world.
She was one of a kind (you can see her in Funny Face) brilliant musical/vocal arranger herself, world traveler, racounter, incredible lady. I've bumper into her in Rome, Paris, London, New York, LA and was terribly saddened by her death (even though she was painfully painfully thin her whole life). She was one of the great women in the history of show biz. The Eloise books are thrilling to say the least and I continually laugh every time I pick one up even after I've gone through them 100 times. I'm ordering them once again as I left mine in London and MUST have them once again. Buddy Bregman

This book is horrible. Eloise is a spoiled rich kid who is petulant and obnoxious. She commonly denigrates the people around her as being "dumb," etc. Her mischief and temper tantrums are recounted without disapproval. The book is punctuated with frequent, unnecessary "for Lord's sake" comments that may offend many. There is nothing in this book that I want my children exposed to. I look forward to reading about Eloise as a teen, when she becomes the next Lindsay Lohan, due to growing up without responsibility and with a total sense of entitlement.

It reads like Eloise has a severe case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She orders "three straight Johnny Walker Black" (scotch) from room service and says "Oh my Lord" an astonishing amount. She uses the words "cawn't" and "rawther" and a plethora of made up words. A passenger on the plane is said to "smoke 3 packs a day and laughs rawther loud" and there isn't a smidgen of punctuation in the entire book. Yes, it does have French words and illustrations of Paris, but that can be found in many other books.

I purchased this book along with "This is Paris", by Miroslav Sasek in order to help my 6-year-old daughter familiarize herself with Paris before our visit. I thought an informative factual book for kids ("This is Paris") paired with the "Eloise" book would be a good combination for her. Much to my dismay, the "Eloise" book used the phrase, "Oh my Lord!" several times, beginning right on the very first page. Now, we're not zealots in my family, but we do have a healthy respect for God and teach our kids to respect Him, and this book just did not fit in with those values. I just think there's something really odd about a "children's book" that finds it necessary to say "Oh my Lord!" over and over -- just seems to be a general indicator that the book is a bit too worldly and disrespectful for my six-year old, sorry! It was offensive. If you want a fun and informative book about Paris suitable for any child, regardless of their beliefs, "This is Paris", by Miroslav Sasek is a wonderful choice. The illustrations are enchanting and the content is very entertaining, and we found that it was the perfect book to introduce our children to Paris -- they had a great time picking things out that they had read about upon our arrival!

I would NEVER recommend this book to anyone. Not only does it have references to alcohol and cigarettes, there are plenty of words that are not spelled right in any language, half of the sentences are not full sentences and they don't make any sense. Poorly written, poorly edited. I stopped halfway and just started to make up my own story because what I was reading was awful on so many levels. I was really wanting it to be a cute book.

This is the typical cute Eloise stories, but in a longer verson. My daughter who loves Eloise got board with the first story half way through. She is young and is getting used to longer stories, but even I was glad when she said she did not want to hear anymore for that night.

Printed in China? This is the second American Classic I have bought printed in China. Shame on you Simon & Schuster. Thank you Hillary Knight for giving us this special little girl. Sorry she was stolen from you...hope you get some rollities.