I still have all of my storybooks from when I was a child. My favourites include Madeline, the story of an adorable pipsqueak. Zoe loves Madeline, she even dressed up as her once, complete with boater, for a party.
But my absolute, without a doubt favourite is Eloise. She's a naughty girl with scruffy hair. She likes words and talking ridiculous riddles. She has a little pug. She lives in the Plaza Hotel. She wears a hairbow. She delights in tormenting the hotel staff and her nanny. Eloise is a book for 'precocious grownups'.
Eloise
is a little girl
who lives at The Plaza Hotel
in New York.
She is not yet pretty
but she is already a Person.
Henry James would
want to study her.
Queen Victoria would
recognize her as
an Equal.
The New York Jets
would want to have
her on their side.
Lewis Carroll would love her
(once he got over the initial shock).
She knows everything about The Plaza.
She is interested in people when
they are not boring.
She has
Inner Resources.
If you take her home with you, you will
always be glad you did.
