Eloise's Christmas Trinkles »

A nightclub musician with a one-of-a-kind personality, Kay Thompson turned her comical six-year-old alter ego Eloise into a children's classic featuring verselike prose and Hilary Knight's inimitable illustrations. Eloise's life at New York's Plaza Hotel is an enviable, whimsical one that readers cawn't, cawn't cawn't forget. As Rex Reed wrote in 1972, "If you don't know who Kay Thompson is, please turn the page. You just flunked pizazz."

Children's Literature

The inimitable Eloise twirls and runs through the Plaza Hotel on Christmas Eve bringing her idea of Christmas decorating and caroling to everyone she meets. "I'm rawther fond of caroling/ Fa la on every floor." She delivers gifts to the staff, her dog and turtle, and to her beloved Nanny. Her "mother called long distance from the Mediterranean," making Eloise a little wistful. However, her dear Nanny knows just the thing to say. This small book is adapted from Eloise at Christmastime, first published in 1958. Knight's pen & ink drawings of this precocious little girl and her antics are still perfectly suited to the droll text. Reviewer: Sharon Salluzzo