Maurice Sendak calls Eloise a "brazen, loose-limbed little monster." Pulitzer Prize winner Anna Quindlen finds her pathetic and lonely. Eloise gave Vanity Fair writer Marie Brenner "permission to rebel." Anyone who has been introduced to the eccentric 6-year-old who spends her days at large in New York's Plaza Hotel pouring water down the mail chute and managing her self-imposed responsibilities is fascinated, fascinated, fascinated. She is the only girl we know who feeds her turtle raisins and braids his ears, wears Kleenex boxes on her head (they make very good hats), and gets away with everything. Even if you have seven copies of the original Eloise, you may want to add The Absolutely Essential Eloise to your collection. In addition to the full splendor of the original 65-page Eloise story, this special edition includes an 18-page scrapbook, written by Marie Brenner, with "photographs of Miss Kay Thompson when she was young and fabulous and rawther like Eloise" and never-before-seen photographs, memorabilia, and sketches and stories from illustrator Hilary Knight. Anyone who adores Eloise and is intrigued by her talented creators should have this book within easy reach. (Click to see a sample spread. Copyright 1955, renewed 1983 by Kay Thompson. Scrapbook text copyright 1999 by Marie Brenner. Used with permission of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.) (Ages 5 to 105) --Karin Snelson