JANUARY 2016 - AudioFile
"For precocious grownups" announces the book’s introduction, and one wonders about the audience for this excellent four-book audio collection about the girl who lives at the Plaza Hotel. Still, if Eloise fans want to share this classic with their children and enjoy it again themselves, this production is the way to go. The incomparable Bernadette Peters consistently expresses the singular voice of Eloise—with its curious mix of pseudosophistication and youthful verve. Whether she’s affecting a French accent or singing a tuneless duet with her nanny, Eloise’s energy and activity level can sometimes be maddening. Musical interludes are a wonderful accompaniment; for example, “The Flight of the Bumblebee” aids in describing her busy flights up and down elevators. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2016 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly - Audio
01/25/2016
Eeeew! Peters is a pitch-perfect six-year-old Eloise. Thompson chose her herself, and a good choice it was, for few adult actors can make such young characters sound both silly and believable. With delicious humor, Peters recreates the sophisticated, childish, beguiling, and snooty miscreant who lives on the top floor of the Plaza with her dog, her turtle, and her very, very, very British nanny, who frequently utters adjectives and adverbs in threes. Eloise “ab-so-lute-ly luuvves” the Plaza and its staff, whom she runs ragged, making demands of the doormen and management, crawling among patrons and endlessly ordering (mostly caviar) from room service. The first three tales—“Eloise,” “Eloise at Christmas Time,” and “Eloise in Paris”—are delightful. The fourth, “Eloise in Moscow,” is out of kilter with the rest. Without Hilary Knight’s familiar drawings, the audio edition seems like social satire directed at Soviet propaganda, since Thompson makes fun of the endless chatter of Eloise’s Russian translator (comically rendered here by Peters), but this dialogue is repetitive, tiresome, and not well-suited for the intended audience. Ages 7–up. A Simon & Schuster picture book. (Oct.)
JANUARY 2016 - AudioFile
"For precocious grownups" announces the book’s introduction, and one wonders about the audience for this excellent four-book audio collection about the girl who lives at the Plaza Hotel. Still, if Eloise fans want to share this classic with their children and enjoy it again themselves, this production is the way to go. The incomparable Bernadette Peters consistently expresses the singular voice of Eloise—with its curious mix of pseudosophistication and youthful verve. Whether she’s affecting a French accent or singing a tuneless duet with her nanny, Eloise’s energy and activity level can sometimes be maddening. Musical interludes are a wonderful accompaniment; for example, “The Flight of the Bumblebee” aids in describing her busy flights up and down elevators. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2016 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
