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a_cloud's review against another edition
1.0
I read this because it is Included on the list of “1000 books to read before you die” by James Mustich.
masel_93's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
someonetookit's review
4.0
Definitely a 3.5, but I'll scale up because I'm feeling generous
Ok first thing I want to say is this is kind of dark. Like, it made my 11 year old cry because Sister Hortense is so mean, dark. Imagine Ms Trunchbull but in a habit and instead of The Chokey, she has a Potter-esque cupboard of cleaning supplies. She is abusive and cruel to Eloise but so kind and nurturing to the other children and I couldn’t help but imagine her having a Jekyll and Hyde type accident in her younger years. There’s shoes that are too small, a suspension of lessons, endless hard labour, and a complete disregard for the wellbeing of her ward. The saddest part, she continuously reinforces the idea that Eloise is less than and doing the work of the devil despite allowing the other children to do THE SAME DAMN THINGS and there is no recourse. Also, apparently fairytales are the work of the Devil and how can you tell a child that their imagination makes them evil (for those who don’t know, I sell books in my work time so it’s literally my job to encourage kids to read).
Now Eloise is an exceptionally strong protagonist, who despite her apparent shortcomings, just wants to fit in and find a family/someone to love her; her interactions with the village blacksmith and his horse Dancy made me all gooey inside and all I could think the entire time was ‘why don’t YOU adopt her’ because he’s just so nice. She is determined to not only make a happy ending for herself but also to help out those around her. Although supposedly a problem child, she is more than willing to chip in whether it be helping the other kids get dressed or turning menial tasks into fun games so as the Littlies don’t get bored/in trouble. What I’m saying is, this kid has an endless amount of heart and I just wanted to reach into the pages and gently caress her hair while telling her everything is ok.
The secondary characters of the nuns have me a little bit in two minds. While the aforementioned Sister Hortense is the most horrible person ever, Sister Genevieve is the sweetest person you would ever meet. She attempts to sneak Eloise some time to just sit and listen to a story, sends her on errands she could perform herself so as to give her some time alone, and teaches her how to sew under the guise of perfectly good cushions needing repair. There’s also Sister Bernard who is stern but fair and sort of the middle ground in the trio of sisters. While being stern, she also seems to try to give Eloise a break when she can despite regularly being foiled by the ever present Hortense (even her name sounds mean, right?). But now I’m rambling.
The whole narrative seems a little meh until you realise that something else has to be going on behind the scenes. The ‘big reveal’ about Eloise’s presence at the orphanage, while passing very quickly, provides a welcome change to this novels rather dark story. The aftermath of this also allowed Brian’s latest entry to have a happy ending, or at least the reader can assume it is a happy ending. I loved the inclusion of the subplot about the unicorn – in a very dark narrative, it provided a glimmer of hope for everyone involved. It also allowed an outlet for Eloise’s despair, giving her something to work towards to distract her from her terrible home life.
I did however have an issue with one thing. The time seems to jump rather than flow logically. Sometimes it’s told day to day, other times it jumps a week into the future with no indication that it has. While this seems a small issue, it does disorientate on occasion and caused me to have to jump back in the text to work out how long had passed, stopping me from fully immersing myself in the narrative.
Also I just want to add in here that there are A LOT of references to God and faith. I understand it is an orphanage and they are looked after by nuns but the whole thing felt a little like religious education when the unicorn came. Kind of like Aslan sacrifices himself in Narnia (if you didn’t already know this happened, sorry, but those novels are like 70 years old)
Basically, this whole story is about hope and the need for children to feel like they belong. The language used within is appropriate for the 9+ age group but also doesn’t feel infantile for parents or older persons who wish to read it. The protagonist is a strong role model, never allowing the world to trample her spirit and battling through despite her hardships. While the nuns run the gamut of personalities, they filled the trope of ‘good cop, bad cop’ extremely well and gave a sense of balance within the orphanage. As I said at the start of this review, it is well worth a read whether you enjoy it or not.
Many thanks to Walker Books for providing me with an early reading copy. The opinions within are my own and have in no way been influenced by Walker or its affiliates.
Ok first thing I want to say is this is kind of dark. Like, it made my 11 year old cry because Sister Hortense is so mean, dark. Imagine Ms Trunchbull but in a habit and instead of The Chokey, she has a Potter-esque cupboard of cleaning supplies. She is abusive and cruel to Eloise but so kind and nurturing to the other children and I couldn’t help but imagine her having a Jekyll and Hyde type accident in her younger years. There’s shoes that are too small, a suspension of lessons, endless hard labour, and a complete disregard for the wellbeing of her ward. The saddest part, she continuously reinforces the idea that Eloise is less than and doing the work of the devil despite allowing the other children to do THE SAME DAMN THINGS and there is no recourse. Also, apparently fairytales are the work of the Devil and how can you tell a child that their imagination makes them evil (for those who don’t know, I sell books in my work time so it’s literally my job to encourage kids to read).
Now Eloise is an exceptionally strong protagonist, who despite her apparent shortcomings, just wants to fit in and find a family/someone to love her; her interactions with the village blacksmith and his horse Dancy made me all gooey inside and all I could think the entire time was ‘why don’t YOU adopt her’ because he’s just so nice. She is determined to not only make a happy ending for herself but also to help out those around her. Although supposedly a problem child, she is more than willing to chip in whether it be helping the other kids get dressed or turning menial tasks into fun games so as the Littlies don’t get bored/in trouble. What I’m saying is, this kid has an endless amount of heart and I just wanted to reach into the pages and gently caress her hair while telling her everything is ok.
The secondary characters of the nuns have me a little bit in two minds. While the aforementioned Sister Hortense is the most horrible person ever, Sister Genevieve is the sweetest person you would ever meet. She attempts to sneak Eloise some time to just sit and listen to a story, sends her on errands she could perform herself so as to give her some time alone, and teaches her how to sew under the guise of perfectly good cushions needing repair. There’s also Sister Bernard who is stern but fair and sort of the middle ground in the trio of sisters. While being stern, she also seems to try to give Eloise a break when she can despite regularly being foiled by the ever present Hortense (even her name sounds mean, right?). But now I’m rambling.
The whole narrative seems a little meh until you realise that something else has to be going on behind the scenes. The ‘big reveal’ about Eloise’s presence at the orphanage, while passing very quickly, provides a welcome change to this novels rather dark story. The aftermath of this also allowed Brian’s latest entry to have a happy ending, or at least the reader can assume it is a happy ending. I loved the inclusion of the subplot about the unicorn – in a very dark narrative, it provided a glimmer of hope for everyone involved. It also allowed an outlet for Eloise’s despair, giving her something to work towards to distract her from her terrible home life.
I did however have an issue with one thing. The time seems to jump rather than flow logically. Sometimes it’s told day to day, other times it jumps a week into the future with no indication that it has. While this seems a small issue, it does disorientate on occasion and caused me to have to jump back in the text to work out how long had passed, stopping me from fully immersing myself in the narrative.
Also I just want to add in here that there are A LOT of references to God and faith. I understand it is an orphanage and they are looked after by nuns but the whole thing felt a little like religious education when the unicorn came. Kind of like Aslan sacrifices himself in Narnia (if you didn’t already know this happened, sorry, but those novels are like 70 years old)
Basically, this whole story is about hope and the need for children to feel like they belong. The language used within is appropriate for the 9+ age group but also doesn’t feel infantile for parents or older persons who wish to read it. The protagonist is a strong role model, never allowing the world to trample her spirit and battling through despite her hardships. While the nuns run the gamut of personalities, they filled the trope of ‘good cop, bad cop’ extremely well and gave a sense of balance within the orphanage. As I said at the start of this review, it is well worth a read whether you enjoy it or not.
Many thanks to Walker Books for providing me with an early reading copy. The opinions within are my own and have in no way been influenced by Walker or its affiliates.
lawbooks600's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Representation: N/A
Score: Five points out of ten.
First off, I tried to find any representation in this novel, but it turns out that I couldn't find any. What a shame. Fortunately, at least the book I'm reading now at the time of writing this has so much representation, which I appreciate. Now with that out of way, I still didn't enjoy this book, and I will refrain from reading books from this author if she doesn't improve her writing. She released a new book, it might be good. It might not. It starts with the main character, Eloise Pail, or Eloise for short, living in an orphanage since someone dumped her in a bucket at birth, hence the surname. She was trying to find her birth certificate when she got caught by a nun (that orphanage is Christian after all) and got a scolding. From then on, the book slowed significantly which dampened my reading experience, considering that I didn't like or connect to Eloise. She's not well written enough and can even come off as cold, maybe if she was someone I could root for and like I would have given the story a higher rating. Alas. I did not. The book continues to drag right until the end when after Eloise was researching such ideas like the moon, forbidden concepts (like unicorns), she discovered something, but honestly? I. Did. Not. Care. Nor did I care if another orphan came to the orphanage and formed a somewhat tenuous connection with Eloise, she wasn't an outstanding character either. The ending was a talk between the two remaining nuns and that's it. Wow. It fizzled out. Come on.
Score: Five points out of ten.
First off, I tried to find any representation in this novel, but it turns out that I couldn't find any. What a shame. Fortunately, at least the book I'm reading now at the time of writing this has so much representation, which I appreciate. Now with that out of way, I still didn't enjoy this book, and I will refrain from reading books from this author if she doesn't improve her writing. She released a new book, it might be good. It might not. It starts with the main character, Eloise Pail, or Eloise for short, living in an orphanage since someone dumped her in a bucket at birth, hence the surname. She was trying to find her birth certificate when she got caught by a nun (that orphanage is Christian after all) and got a scolding. From then on, the book slowed significantly which dampened my reading experience, considering that I didn't like or connect to Eloise. She's not well written enough and can even come off as cold, maybe if she was someone I could root for and like I would have given the story a higher rating. Alas. I did not. The book continues to drag right until the end when after Eloise was researching such ideas like the moon, forbidden concepts (like unicorns), she discovered something, but honestly? I. Did. Not. Care. Nor did I care if another orphan came to the orphanage and formed a somewhat tenuous connection with Eloise, she wasn't an outstanding character either. The ending was a talk between the two remaining nuns and that's it. Wow. It fizzled out. Come on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, and Death of parent
Full trigger warnings: Implied disappearance or death of parents, abandonment of a child, physical injury and assault, blood depiction, death of another personzenithharpink's review against another edition
3.0
I read this in Spanish, and it was definitely maxing out my comprehension, but this was a cute story, even if Eloise is a bit of a brat.
libkatem's review against another edition
5.0
ME ELOISE, is a fabulous six year old living in the Plaza. We get an insight to her friends, her adventures, and to some degree, her lonliness. Often said to be Ms Thompson's alter ego, Eloise in the Plaza (and in Paris and in Moscow) is a delight to your fabulous inner six year old.
valhecka's review against another edition
4.0
My aunt gave these to me for Christmas when I was ten, and I would have been insulted except then I read them and they're completely adorable. And this one has a good interesting article in the back on Ms. Thompson and the evolution of Eloise.
barefootsong's review against another edition
4.0
I am rawther fond of Eloise and her antics. :) And the biographical info at the back of this edition is quite interesting.
Also, it is one of my life's ambitions to stay in the Plaza someday.
Also, it is one of my life's ambitions to stay in the Plaza someday.
krissy514's review against another edition
5.0
such a cute story!! now I want to read the rest of them ;)