One of my earliest memories of reading includes The Animal Garden. My grandparents had it at their house, and they probably read it to me hundreds of times. They loved all sorts of poetry, and I loved the idea of planting seeds that would grow into pets just like flowers. I still find it to be a great read because of the wonderful verse and the enthralling pictures. I think a nostalgic vision of Abidan Alseed will be with me always.

I wish that Nash's books would come back into print. I think that my children would love him now as much as I did in the '60s!

I found this book in a Flea Market(published in 66') and thought it would be funny to read it. I was right. But also, it was amazingly easy to cook with this book! What a nice surprise: the recipes are simple and woderful! It's my cooking bible since -all the other books are past!

The book is adorable! Great to teach screamy children to stop all the racket!!

This book has always been one of my family's favories. Our mom had to read it to us daily--I think she had it memorized. Even now (when we're 30-ish) if my sister needs cheering up, I can always get a smile if I read her the part about the dungaree legs. I've given this book (and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day) to all of my friends' children & they love it too.

I first read Eloise when I was 4 and going to stay at the Plaza. I couldn't wait to be six. I couldn't wait to see the revolving doors with the P on top, or call room service and say Charge It Please. And on the day I got married, right before walking down the aisle, I told my sister (my Maid of Honor) that "There's been so much to do today, I had no time to pour a pitcher of water down the mail chute." I am thrilled to see the "new" eloise books coming onto the market, like this one and Eloise in Paris. I'm busy introducing a new generation of little girls to the importance of turtles, fires and floods in the bathtub, and skating keys. And of course, they all love the fold-out elevator...

I would definately recommend Eolise to
everyone. I have loved this book since
I was a child and my parents brought me a
copy home from the Plaza Hotel where the
story takes place, I loved the book so
much they ordered me Eloise in Paris and
Eloise in Moscow. I still read the books,
only now with my children and they love
the books as much as I did then.
Eloise is a timeless classic that will
make everone feel young at heart.

This edition of Eloise has more information about Eloise and her creators than what you saw in the original book. Marie Brenner has put together a scrapbook that tells a little about the origin of Eloise as a character, brief biographies of Kay Thompson (author) and Hilary Knight (illustrator), and some photographs from their youths.

If you want a keepsake about the original for you or as gift for an adult who knows the story, this book is probably better than Eloise for your purposes. If you want the best keepsake and money is no object, I recommend that you trade up into Eloise -- The Ultimate Edition, which has this material plus the three sequels (Eloise in Paris, Eloise at Christmastime, and Eloise in Moscow). If you want a reading copy for a young person, I suggest that simply buy Eloise.

Kay Thompson's path to writing Eloise was an unexpected one. After having been a successful song arranger, she started a career as a singer with Andy Williams and his three brothers as backups. Soon, she was earning top dollar in Las Vegas. Over the years, she developed a humorous routine for use in private when she wanted to get her way that included playing Eloise. People encouraged her to turn it into a book. One friend, D.D. Dixon, had a neighbor who was an artist, and introduced Ms. Thompson to Hilary Knight. The rest is history. Her wacky, wonderful story and his scintillating art made hash out of the competititon. The book sold wonderfully, and Eloise soon became an institution.

By the way, did you know that Ms. Thompson was living for free at The Plaza while performing in the Persian Room in 1955 when she dreamed up this story for Eloise?

Space does not permit me to also review the Eloise story here. You can see what I had to say about the story on the Eloise book page on Amazon.com.

After enjoying this wonderful book, I suggest that you think about what's good about being six . . . that you can continue to do when you are older by multiples of six. Who says we have to always be mature when we are older, or childish when we are young?

Enjoy your stay at The Plaza!

I read the Ms. Piggle-Wiggle books in second & third grade & enjoyed them, but now as an adult & writer, I leafed through the books again recently & find them to be unrealistic & dated. You can tell the books are set WAY back in the olden days(1950's) where people were more ignorant in general & wanted to fantasize about "perfect" traditional WASP families where all the Mommies were happy housewives who never held a job & all the Daddies rushed off to work five mornings a week & divorce, sex, peer pressure, & poverty are unheard of. The magic parts are appealing to kids of any era. But then that magic was played out in the conservative fantasy of having the children cured of faults, creating "perfect" children who gave parents no trouble. Especially troubling is the story about the "crybaby". In the end when the girl was cured of crying so much, she promised her parents, "I'm never going to cry again. No matter what happens." That might give a wrong message to highly sensitive kids who cry easily. Mary Anne Spier of the BSC series & the biggest crier in Stoneybrook, Connecticut was lucky not to be around back then! So...parents: before you read these with your kids make sure they understand that these stories are influenced by the suburbia feminine mystique fantasies that plagued most of the US in the fifties. Another word of warning: spanking is presented as acceptable in these books. The books could be used as a catalyst of discussion in classrooms & families about how people idealized how life "should" be...then & today.

I have read this tory to students in my class ranging from kindergartners to third graders. All of my students have enjoyed the story and went on to read the other titles as well. The humor used in the book is very good. Children can relate to some of the problems Miss Piggly Wiggly cures. We even used her humor in class as we decided how some of our personalities fit with the children's in the story. I would highly recommend this story as a read aloud for younger children or independent reading for third grade and higher.

This is a delightful and funny book for children. I read it a few years ago and thought to myself, this is a funny book, but adults shouldn't really read it because they might not like it like me. It's childish humor about an old lady who likes children. Buy this for your children.

I first read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in the forth grade, checking it and the other Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books out of my school library. I found Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle very fun to read, and really enjoyed the rest of the books as well. I recently purchased it from Amazon for my 9 year old daughter who loves to read. I took the time to re-read the book before I gave it to her, and it is interesting to read it as an adult. I still found it fun, especially the last chapter, the Fighter-Quarrelers Cure, which I had completely forgotten. (I must say, I am tempted to try the cure one of these days) My daughter seems to agree that this is a fun book, as she had two chapters read before breakfast this morning. I am looking forward to ordering the rest of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, for myself almost as much as for my daughter!

UPDATE~ My daughter finished the book in two days. She loved it and couldn't put it down until she was finished. If you have a child who is a reluctant reader, give Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle a try.

Most people who have read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle will agree that she is one of the dearest characters to grace the pages of any children's book in our time. She is as smart as she is caring, as interesting as she is magical.

To sum up, she helps out the neighbourhood kids by curing them of "bad habits" such as quarreling, not picking up toys, and every not so nice trait which has been attributed to children. I guarantee that kids will love this book, it is funny and well written, but at the same time it teaches a lesson to everyone. Even the grownups. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is the best!

The only problem with the book is that yes, there is the fact that the women are the ones who stay home and take care of the children etc. etc. But I'm sure if you explain this to your child they'll understand. Honestly when I first read it when I was eight, I didn't even notice. (And I'm still only a teen now if anyone is thinking differently!)

But besides this one problem, which most kids will probably look past since it is not the focus of the book, I guarantee that they will adore it. It is a beautiful little book which I am surprised is not more popular.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was a book that I enjoyed tremendously at age 8 when it was read aloud to me by my third grade teacher. Every day the entire class looked forward to hearing another chapter describing the shennanigans of some child that was having issues that we were having at that time (ie didn't want to go to bed, didn't want to eat, didn't want to clean up your room etc...).

At 32 years of age, I once again am enjoying Betty MacDonald's creative way of capturing her audience with fun filled stories as I share them with my little one. This is a classic, along with anything by Beverly Cleary or Beverly Cleary.

If you like problems and interesting things you better get this book and read it. I rate this book 4 stars because the kids always had a problem. Of course, Mrs Piggle Wiggle had to find a cure for the kids. Such as Sharon- she needed a powder that was called the Heedless Breaker Powder. She needed that powder because she would always break something. I thought that this book was great. I would recommend this book to ages 6 and up.

I have just finshed reading Mrs. Piggle - Wiggle's Magic by Betty MacDonald. In this book Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle tells storys about cures that she made, such as the tattletale cure or the thought-you-saiders cure and many more. I like this book because it has all different kinds of little stories in it. Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle seems like a very nice lady but when she gets poor, she asks all the kids that she knows to help her look for money and gold that is hidden in her house. I gave this book five stars because it was very interesting and a little funny.

I read this book as a child..and never knew there were more books about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle until I was quite grown up! This one remains my favorite, however. The pages of my copy are quite worn where I turned the pages ...and read and re-read the stories. Yes, times have changed and much is different today from the 50's but Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's delightful acceptance of children with all their foibles is still an inspiration to all parents --and a reminder to me as a mom to lighten up and laugh with my kids and their antics. Betty MacDonald is very clever in bringing childish faults to light by way of terribly funny situations and even more preposterous cures. I LOVE THIS BOOK! and so do my girls.

This book is the oddball of the Eloise sequels, being the only one that also is also focused at the Plaza (like the original) and uses a rhyming scheme. Everyone who has loved Eloise must have wondered about how she fares without her mother living with her Nanny, pug (Weenie), and turtle (Skipperdee) in the Plaza on Christmas. The young woman who was born to shop (and order room service) adds a whole new meaning to Christmas for the guests at the Plaza and those who work there. If you require high quality rhymes, you may not like this book. If you can lightheartedly enjoy fractured verse, hotel high jinks, and great Hilary Knight drawings, you'll love it!

The story starts on Christmas Eve, as a blizzard blankets the Plaza, and the temperature drops to four below zero outside. But inside it's warm and cozy, and there's a blazing Yule log in Eloise's fireplace.

The story recounts Eloise's tree trimming, gift-giving to everyone she knows, getting ready for exchanging gifts on Christmas under her Christmas tree, and prowling around the Plaza on Christmas Eve in typical Eloise fashion. She hits all the parties and helps the people celebrate from room to room as well. You can imagine the mayhem that creates!

One of the most beautiful segments is Eloise dreaming about Santa Claus coming. This section will touch your heart, if you are like me.

A high point for Eloise is opening her present from Nanny. You'll love reading about it.

After you finish enjoying this warm Christmas story, I suggest that you take a few minutes to think (as Eloise does) about all of the people (and animals) you can show your appreciation for during the holidays. I'll bet Eloise inspires you to take a broader view of thankfulness. What better gift could you receive at Christmas?

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo! I absolutely love Eloise

I am..... years old and I still like Eloise book. She's my favorite 6 year old! it has nice pictures on each page and of couse one pull out page like the original Eloise book. there are some lyrics on some of the pages of the book to Eloise's favorite christmas song, "Trinkles and Drinkles." When she(Kay Thompson) tells about Eloise Christmas dream it is all in rhyme. I hoghly reccomend it to kids of all ages.

I had the original "Eloise at Christmastime" and there are a few subtle changes in this printing. First of all there are 4 wonderful new pictures by Mr. Knight but they took out one of my favorites, Eloise on the couch with Nanny in front of the fire. Some of the pictures have been reduced to put another picture on the page. Lastly the floor plan of the Plaza folded out in the original printing. Those are the differences that collectors will be happy about.

I am so happy that my nieces and nephew will be able to finally have a copy of "Eloise at Christmastime" of their very own and they will be able to pass it on to their children. Hang two-legged Christmas stockings and read this book almost every night before Christmas.

My daughter received this as gift from her Aunt(an Eloise fan) for her 6th birthday. I found it to be confusing. I would not pick this for a child. Not my idea of a childrens book.

I've been reading Eloise since I was 6 and I'm now 14! She represents freedom, and her wildness refreshes my mind. It's a great book for kids and it will expand their imagination.

Eloise rocked my world when I was little... now I'm 18 and bringing her books to college! She's an inspiration to six-year olds and adults alike. This book is just another great glimpse into the world of Eloise. I consider it a lesson on how to stay young through use of the imagination. It isn't as great as the original Eloise, but it's still wonderful! I read it to children I babysit for (who love her) and I plan on reading it to children of my own someday!