Eloise's Back At The Plaza
For more than 40 years a delightful 6-year-old girl has been entertaining readers with her tales of scampering throughout The Plaza hotel.
Her name is Eloise, and her loyal fans have followed her mischief making to France and Russia. Now, after years of not being able to buy the books, Eloise lovers will be pleased to know all the books are being re-released. The illustrator of the books, Hilary Knight, talks to The Early Show about the current resurgence of Eloise's popularity.
For those who may not know Eloise, she's a very privileged little girl who had the good luck to have a mom who disappeared a lot and who left her with a loving nanny, notes Knight.
She lives at The Plaza and the hotel staff is extremely fond of her, even though she spends a lot of time making mischief in places like the boiler room and the elevator.
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The first book was published in 1955 and Knight says it never had any real publicity and was never intended to be a children's book.
The last book, Eloise Takes a Bawth, still needs to be edited since author Kay Thompson passed away last year.
Early on, Thompson withdrew the books from publication, and they have been unavailable for 30 years until now.
The story of Eloise can be acquired in the original version, or as Eloise: The Absolutely Essential Edition, which has a little scrapbook at the end with information about Thompson and Knight.
There has been such a comeback recently of the book's popularity that toy store FAO Schwarz's windows have been promoting Eloise for the past month. And there was even a pink-and-black ball at The Plaza in October to celebrate Eloise.
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