Eloise Takes a Bawth

My granddaughter has the whole series...well her name is Eloise. She was delighted with this one.

I loved the Eloise books when I was a child, have occasionally dipped into them again with pleasure, and was filled with nostalgia for her when standing in front of New York’s Plaza Hotel in February 1996. I only recently read that there was this fifth volume, not published when she and Hilary Knight developed it in the 1960s, and finally put together by Knight (still alive today) and others and published in 2002.The text is a let-down, not a patch on the original stories for either humour or narrative development, but Hilary Knight’s illustrations are as brilliant as ever, with plenty of detail and many visual jokes. For them alone, I’m happy to have completed my Eloise collection with this one.

I have been a fan of Eloise since childhood when I read the original "Eloise" and "Eloise in Paris", but I did not get around to reading this more recently published "Eloise" book until this week. I was a little hesitant about the book knowing that it came out only in the last few years; even though the author wrote the story and worked with the illustrator many years ago, I was still concerned that it might be a little bit thin compared to the earlier, detail-laden Eloise books. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that even though the book focuses only on one activity of Eloise - her taking a bath in her suite at the Plaza Hotel and overfilling the tub, which begins to leak through the Plaza's walls and ceilings at the same time preparations for a grand Venetian ball are in full swing - it's definitely on a par with the earlier books.Hilary Knight's illustrations are the real star of the show here. The story is good but because it's fairly short, the book would have been much more bland without the many layers of detail going on in the pictures. Knight deftly portrays both the realism of Eloise struggling with fancy old taps in her fancy old bawthroom as leaks sprout on the floors below, and the imaginative as Eloise pictures herself racing a speedboat over the water flooding her tub. Knight's portrait of the harried hotel manager worrying about the leak problem while surrounded by a passel of his equally worried staff made me laugh out loud, as he perfectly captured how such people would look (and at many grand old hotels, still DO look) in such a situation.I won't go on and on about whether Eloise is a good role model for kids, as kids will either "get" that the story is supposed to be a fantasy or they won't, and everybody knows by now (or should know) that she is somewhere between Strewelpeter and Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes" in terms of realism. But I did note that this story might be easier to read to a younger child because a bathtime disaster is much easier to follow and within the ken of ordinary experience than, say, Eloise jaunting around various foreign locations. I think this is a great addition for any adult or child who is already an Eloise fan as well.

数年前、ニューヨークに旅行したときに本屋さんでこのシリーズが平積みになっているのを見つけて、ちょっと気になっていました。今回新刊が出たとのことなので、思い切って買ってみました。この本は、プラザホテルの様子が細かく描かれていて、読むたびに新しい発見があります。ホテルに滞在するセレブの服装とか、ホテルの支配人の表情がいい！　最初辞書を引いても見つからなかった bawth　や hawlf や glawnce は、クイーンズ・イングリッシュの発音をそのままつづったものだったんですね。知り合いの外国人に本を見せて発音してもらったら、違いがなんとなくわかりました。噛めば噛むほど味が出るスルメ（？）のような絵本です。

These are uniquely classic books written by Kay Thompson. They are written and illustrated as "children's books " and are definitely appropriate and enjoyed by children. However, they are so clever that they are amusing, entertaining, and very enjoyable for children and adults of all ages. I bought the set for my grandchildren who are 14 and 11 years old, and I'm 75 years old and bought myself the set. They are a treasure, and I have a Masters degree in Library and Information Science!!

Thx

この本を見つけ、表紙のイラストの可愛さと、好意的なカスタマーレビューに背中を押されて買いました。プレゼントを待ち望む子供のような気持ちで本が来るまでわくわくしていたのですが、まさに期待通りの絵本でした。お風呂に入っているエロイーズはやはりお腹がポコンと出ている幼児体型で、周りに迷惑をかけていることなど知らずに歌を歌っています。そしてプラザホテルは水びたしになり、その様子を描いた最後のページはちょっと凝った観音開き風のつくりでカラフルに彩られています。英語に普段接しない人でも、エロイーズのイラストを追いながら楽しめますし、こどもに読み聞かせをしたい場合でも、英語にこだわらずイラストを追いながらお話を紡いでいけます。プレゼントにも喜ばれそうですよ！