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Eloise in Moscow

Eloise in Moscow

List Price: $17.00
Your Price: $11.56
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not so bad at all
Review: "Eloise in Moscow," the fourth and final book of the Eloise series, is also the weakest. However, it is still a lot of fun.

I take the book as being a spoof of the cold war spy movies and sterotypes of Soviet Moscow. While Eloise does comment sardonically on certain aspects of life in the USSR, she also speaks Russian and has a great time exploring Moscow's rich cultural life. Hillary Knight's drawings of the Kremlin, Moscow subway and other landmarks are meticulous and respectful.

There is, of course, Eloise's sardonic humor sprinkled throughout the book

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Moscow relived
Review: As an Ex-Pat living in Moscow during 2001, I wanted a book to share with the little ones we know in the United States. This book is not only funny bit accurate. The middle pull out of the Kremlin is supurb and everyone who has received it from us has loved it. I have a copy of one myself so I can look back on my experiences living here and laugh at some of the same ones Eloise and I have had.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Historical fun!
Review: Children will love the comical adventures of everyone's favorite six-year-old in Soviet Moscow.

Adults will appreciate the look into American-Soviet relations forty years ago, and Hilary Knight's wonderful drawings of it.

Why not five stars? Maybe by this fourth Eloise book, the whimsy is a little predictable by now.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Eloise Is Back
Review: Eloise is back and more mischevious than ever. This time Eloise, Nanny, Weenie (her dog who looks like a cat), and Skipperdee (her turtle) are in Moscow. Eloise visits the ballet, and has a tour guide, but thinks someone is spying on her. "As you know there's no privacy in Moscow."

This is a must have for anyone's Eloise collection. So buy a copy, and charge it please.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Do I recommend this book? "Oh Definitely Da."
Review: Get out your woolies and fur hats, Eloise is going to Moscow! In the funniest of Eloise's many escapades, she travels to the Russia of the 1950s with Nanny, Winnie, and Skipperdee in tow. Apart from her usual hotel antics, including spying on the other guests and dinning on black caviar from the Caspian Sea, Eloise has many mischievous adventures at the Bolshoi Ballet, Red Square, and inside the Kremlin. While young children will not understand all the humor in this and other Eloise books, they certainly still love the outrageous heroine Eloise, who's expressions and intentions are so vividly portrayed by Hilary Knight's illustrations. Eloise in Moscow continues Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight's tradition of hilarious books for precocious grown-ups.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Do I recommend this book? "Oh Definitely Da."
Review: Get out your woolies and fur hats, Eloise is going to Moscow! In the funniest of Eloise's many escapades, she travels to the Russia of the 1950s with Nanny, Winnie, and Skipperdee in tow. Apart from her usual hotel antics, including spying on the other guests and dinning on black caviar from the Caspian Sea, Eloise has many mischievous adventures at the Bolshoi Ballet, Red Square, and inside the Kremlin. While young children will not understand all the humor in this and other Eloise books, they certainly still love the outrageous heroine Eloise, who's expressions and intentions are so vividly portrayed by Hilary Knight's illustrations. Eloise in Moscow continues Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight's tradition of hilarious books for precocious grown-ups.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Old Fantastic Eloise in Moscow
Review: I am so glad this book has come back into print. This was the only Eloise book I read as a kid; my mom got it at a discard sale from the public library in the late 70s, where they were getting rid of it because of its (no longer politically correct) cold war sentiments. That being said, I adored the book. As a four year-old, I had no idea of the political implications of the book. All I knew was that I wanted to be just like Eloise, and Moscow seemed like the most glamourous, exciting place I had ever heard of. Eloise's adventures in Moscow are hilarious and engaging; the illustrations are terrific with a wonderful attention to detail. The story and artwork combine to give a really vivid impression of 1950s Moscow, and I have to say even as an adult, I still wish I could visit there. Of course as an adult you get a whole different story from the book, it's an interesting commentary on American views of Russia during the cold war. Also, the guy that shadows Eloise throughout her trip and appears on each page can make a fun "Where's Waldo"-type game for kids reading (or being read to from) this book. One of my absolute favorites from childhood.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Old Fantastic Eloise in Moscow
Review: I am so glad this book has come back into print. This was the only Eloise book I read as a kid; my mom got it at a discard sale from the public library in the late 70s, where they were getting rid of it because of its (no longer politically correct) cold war sentiments. That being said, I adored the book. As a four year-old, I had no idea of the political implications of the book. All I knew was that I wanted to be just like Eloise, and Moscow seemed like the most glamourous, exciting place I had ever heard of. Eloise's adventures in Moscow are hilarious and engaging; the illustrations are terrific with a wonderful attention to detail. The story and artwork combine to give a really vivid impression of 1950s Moscow, and I have to say even as an adult, I still wish I could visit there. Of course as an adult you get a whole different story from the book, it's an interesting commentary on American views of Russia during the cold war. Also, the guy that shadows Eloise throughout her trip and appears on each page can make a fun "Where's Waldo"-type game for kids reading (or being read to from) this book. One of my absolute favorites from childhood.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Hugely disapointing
Review: I hate to dump rain on this parade but...."Eloise in Moscow" is a really terrible book. A big disapointment after the original "Eloise", which is one of my favorite books of all time. I rediscovered "Eloise" some years back when I heard that Ivana Trump was re-decorating the Plaza Hotel and called illustrator Hillary Knight out of semi-retirement to decorate the lobby with murals from the book. I was so charmed by this idea that I dug up the book, which I hadn't read since grade school and re-read it -- and found "Eloise" to be that rare children's book that really stands up to an adult reading. Charming, funny, original and delightful -- plus Hillary Knight's enchanting illustrations. A search at the public library turned up the sequels of Eloise in Moscow/Paris/At Xmas, and I was burning with desire to read them all. This was about ten years ago and they were most definitely out -of-print and very hard to find. Book dealers quoted me outlandish prices, so I embarked on a six month library search all over my state until I finally tracked down the full set. Was I ever crushed and disillusioned! Kay Thompson must have gotten mighty sick of her little creation, because the sequels are lifeless, cynical and unfunny. Eloise quickly deteriorates into a sitcom-like character. The Moscow and Paris settings are hackneyed (with appearances from contemporary celebrities), the dialogue leaden. Instead of seeming precocius and charming, Eloise becomes somewhat pschotic and even disturbing. It would have been nicer to watch her grow up slightly in each book, to deal with the fact of her missing parents (cute in the first book, but troubling when continued in the sequels without explanation) or to show some growing consciousness of her extreme wealth and opulent lifestyle (and yes, even young children have an awareness of these things). I was not expecting the Eloise sequels were going to be socially conscious/politically correct books of the 80s or 90s -- they were written in the 50s after all -- but that there be a little depth in them. The original "Eloise" definitely has a delicate underlying melancholy about a little girl who is lonely and neglected and puts on a brave front of being a little hell-raiser. This tone is completely lost in the later three books and Eloise becomes a shallow charicature. Forget the sequels and stick with the delightful original. The expanded version, with notes from the illustrator, is a worthwhile addition, but otherwise -- forget it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lite history of the Cold War
Review: My girls and I love the Eloise series, this one included. The age group to understand this book is a bit older than the others, say 11 or 12. All the cold war references led to interesting discussions of the cold war and the failure of Communism.

On the light side this book reads very well out loud. It helps if you have a deep voice to say as the intra tourist guide "IS POSSIBLE TO SEE BOOK REVIEWS HERE." "IS NOT POSSIBLE TO HOLD BOOKS, BOOKS ARE SENT AFTER BOUGHT" (While not a quote from the book, it reads like it.)

The book's view of the world does feel dated. It's like reading a Cowboys vs Indian's book and having to explain that perhaps not all is as it appears. Russia is not what it was, but it's not the west yet.

The quality of the paper and the binding are excellent, it feels like it will last for multiple reading. There is a nice foldout of the Kremlin. Like all the Eloise books, the drawings are inked in one color, this one uses yellow to great effect. The paper jacket is an exact copy of the hard cover underneath which is great as the text on it is wonderful.

If you like the other Eloise books, you'll like this one.


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