Review by Booklist Review
PreS^-Gr. 3. Eloise is back, this time in a story suitable to her fame and much better than the last book, which found her in Moscow, for goodness' sake. Apparently ready for publication way back in 1964, this was buried because of "artistic differences." Starting with sketches he originally made 40 years ago, Knight, working with Thompson's heirs and editors, has put together a sprawling, "rawther" amusing tale of Eloise and an ill-fated bath. Nanny tells Eloise not to dawdle in the tub, because the manager of the Plaza Hotel is coming to tea, despite fevered preparations for the Venetian Masked Ball in the "Grawnd" Ballroom. Oh, but Eloise does dawdle. She fills the tub to the "top of its brim, so that [the water] can slip over the rim," which is exactly what it does as Eloise flits in and out of the tub, splishing, splashing, and totally oblivious to the fact that water is seeping, then pouring down into the Grand Ballroom. Thompson's involved rhymed text is enhanced by Knight's inventive artwork, which views the wreckage from every vantage point. Kids will adore seeing Eloise in her room and the wreckage down below, and they'll love the foldout revealing the plumbing of the Plaza. The final spread, showing the Venetian Ball, now authentic because water is flowing everywhere, is an elaborate delight, quite worthy of Eloise. --Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ever-irrepressible Eloise absolutely loves taking a bawth, and her devotees will absolutely love seeing her "splawsh, splawsh, splawsh" her way through a delightfully disastrous-yet ultimately propitious-time in the tub. "You have to be absolutely careful when you take a bawth in a hotel," announces the famous Plaza-dweller, who ignores her own advice and turns on all of the faucets ("Let that water gush out and slush out into that sweet old tub tub tub and fill it up to the absolutely top of its brim so that it can slip over its rim onto the floor if it wants to"). A judicious use of blue on Knight's trademark pen-and-inks traces the flow of water as it seeps from the penthouse through the floors of the Plaza Hotel into the grand ballroom, where workers feverishly prepare for the Venetian Masked Ball. Featuring two gatefold spreads, Knight's drolly detailed pictures depict the hotel's startled guests and employees as water gushes from such unexpected sources as elevator buttons and chandeliers. Oblivious Eloise, meanwhile, blissfully imagines herself driving a speedboat full throttle, water skiing and battling pirates in the Caribbean. A postscript (cleverly presented as a message in a bottle) explains that Thompson and Knight collaborated on this book 40 years ago, and it has been brought to light with the help of playwright Crowley. Since the buoyant art and humorously bubbly text surely rise to the level of its precursors, it's high time this book appeared, "for Lord's sake," as Eloise herself might say. Ages 5-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1 Up-Irrepressible Eloise continues to confound the staff of the Plaza Hotel with her imaginative and disaster-producing adventures. Nanny informs the mischievous child that she must take a bath as Mr. Salomone, "the sweetest old manager in this sweet old world busy busy busy with the Venetian Masked Ball in the Grawnd Ballroom tonight," is taking a much-needed break and coming for tea. The resulting elaborate pre-tub rituals and an endless soak full of pirates, motorboats, water skis, etc., create major plumbing problems that saturate the hotel and flood the ballroom. However, when Eloise is hauled off by the manager to confront the mess she has made, what do they discover but a highly authentic Venetian celebration complete with floating gondolas and wet but enthusiastic revelers. Knight's witty line drawings capture Eloise's wild imaginings and capricious personality and those fascinated with the underpinnings and plumbing of a huge hotel will find the myriad details fascinating. The two double-gatefold illustrations are awesome. The text and pictures wander all over the page in perfect imitation of this cantankerous heroine. As in her previous adventures, the language is quirky and sophisticated, sometimes difficult to follow, and probably more appealing to adults. A "rawther" necessary purchase where Eloise is wildly popular.-Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) For much of 2002, New York City was under a drought warning, but no one seems to have told Eloise. And why would they have, since this fifth volume of her antics, in which she manages to flood the Plaza's Grand Ballroom, was supposed to have been published in 1964, almost forty years ago? In this new, refurbished edition authorized by Thompson's estate, the Plaza's infamous resident is still six years old, still enchant-ingly self-absorbed, and still out of control. Hilary Knight's signature black-and-white line drawings, here accented with blue in addition to the classic red and pink, have lost none of their verve, wit, and panache. While Eloise ""splawshes"" in an overflowing tub and oblivious Nanny watches a soap opera, scenes from which cleverly mimic the watery goings-on outside the TV, the activity in the rest of the hotel is all about getting ready for the Venetian Masked Ball and trying to discover the source of those worrisome drips. The leaks are subtle at first: they spurt from the elevator buttons, plop into a room service beverage, make a small puddle near the histrionic event-coordinator's foot. But, as Eloise gets deeper into her imaginative play, pretending she's a speedboat driver, then a pirate, then a mermaid, the water gets deeper, too. In the end, the Plaza's floors and walls may be ruined, but the ball is saved, with the ballroom (shown in a sumptuous pull-out spread) doing an impressive imitation of a Venetian canal. Kay Thompson may have pulled the plug on Eloise Takes a Bawth in 1964, but Eloise fans will be grateful for her relatives' decision to start the faucet running again. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Proving herself once again more Force than Child, Eloise wreaks watery havoc upon the Plaza Hotel in an episode announced nearly 40 years ago but never published. Has it been worth the wait? "For Lord's sake," need you ask? After Nanny imprudently tells her to draw her own bawth, Eloise immediately locks the door and embarks on an all-taps-full-on adventure that takes her from ocean's bottom to a battle with Caribbean pirates-and sends water pouring between floors to gush from every fixture, threatening to wash out the Grawnd Ballroom's Venetian Masked Ball. Working from his original sketches, Knight creates splawshy close-ups of the self-absorbed six-year-old bounding balletically about a variety of imagined settings, interspersed with cutaway views of lower floors peopled by soggy guests and panicked hotel staff. The pages are so brilliantly conceived that readers will need to share bawth after bawth just finding the jokes and noticing something new with each soak. When Mr. Salomone, the manager, invites Eloise to tour the destruction, a mahvelous double gatefold opens to reveal-a whirl of floating gondolas, extravagantly costumed performers, and delighted (or at least urbane) guests. Thanks to Eloise, the Ball is the social season's high-water mark. And she knows just what to do about the five-million-dollar repair bill, too: "I'd absolutely charge it." Here's the extraordinary extrovert at her very grawndest (and most destructive); rare is the reader who won't be up for repeat dives into her upper-crust, never-humdrum world. (Picture book. 7+)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
