Kay Thompson: Eloise

Author Kay Thompson was a singer, dancer and vocal arranger. During the 1940s she was the coach for a number of MGM musicals. Always a lively and sociable person, Thompson created the voice of Eloise as a joke to amuse friends at a photo shoot.

Eloise became a regular part of her repertoire, with friends demanding to know what the infant terrible had been up to, and Thompson obliging with more and more outrageous exploits.

Eloise might have remained forever no more than a bit of vocal fun had it not been for the initiative of a young magazine illustrator called Hilary Knight.

Knight met Thompson, who was appearing in her own night club act at the Plaza Hotel, through one of his magazine assignments. He was enchanted by her performance of Eloise and sent her a Christmas card depicting Eloise riding on Santa's sack as he hurtled through the night.

The card was a defining moment for Thompson. She knew immediately that Knight had captured the essence of her small and determined creation, and suggested they collaborate on a book. Thompson took up residence at the Plaza and got to work.

Once Thompson started developing Eloise into a book, she found that her young character was unstoppable. Ideas just kept coming, and Eloise soon became a very real person to both her and Knight.

As a team Thompson and Knight worked in complete harmony. In Thompson's own words: "We wrote, edited, laughed, outlined, cut, pasted, laughed again, read out loud, laughed and suddenly we had a book."

Eloise was published in 1955 and became an instant bestseller, much to the astonishment of its author. Thompson considered herself "the last person — really, truly the last person — who would ever write a children's book."

Thompson may have considered herself an unlikely author, but it is her background in vocal work that is the strength of the book. Eloise's voice is instantly recognisable to anyone who has spent time with enthusiastic six-year-olds.

Her wicked activities captivate and enthral children, while her observations on life in the Plaz Hotel are endlessly amusing to adults.

"I am Eloise. I am six." announces the self-confident young heroine of this book.

Eloise, the six-year-old daughter of wealthy and remote parents, lives at the hotel with Nanny, Weenie (a dog who looks like a cat) and Skipperdee, a turtle. She is a precocious and eccentric child who has firm ideas about how she should carry out the day's activities.

No small part of Eloise's appeal is her independence and her ability to fit into any situation, be it very much on her own terms. She is quite at home calling the hotel valet to have her clothes pressed, and ordering room service.

"I'll have the Planked Medallion of Beef Tenderloin with Fresh Vegetables Maison please, and two raisins, one strawberry leaf and one clams in season s'il vous plait, and charge it please," she says regularly to the waiter.

But she is equally at home chatting with the busboy and "helping" the maid with her duties. In command of all situations (except when she has a temper tantrum), Eloise is not above exploiting her status as a small child when it suits her.

Other guests in the hotel are fair game: "... if there is an open door I have to walk in, I pretend I am an orphan and sometimes I limp and look sort of sad, and they give me a piece of melon or something," she relates.

In Eloise's eyes, adults who are "absolutely dumb" enough to fall for her tricks deserve no mercy.

Illustrated by: Hilary Knight

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Price: $16.99

Age: 5-10 years

Recommended by: Jenni Keestra