This is ELLA. She is six years old. She lives at the Local Hotel. She has a nanny called Manny. He has tattoos for sleeves and he might go in with some guys to buy a grilled cheese truck. Sometimes Ella weaves purses out of Ziploc bags and reclaimed twine. (She is artsy of course.) She has a dog named Stacie and a fish named Rasta and a scooter which is important for getting everywhere she needs to be. Altogether she has been to 62 events including that Hillary Clinton fundraiser. She is NEVER bored. If Ella and Kay Thompson’s Eloise got together for a play date, they would have a very good time indeed.
My thoughts... Let me begin with the amazing illustrations. Loved them. They really are fantastic and really gave the book the urban flavor. The story itself is a modern day Eloise. A little girl left behind for a nanny (or in this case manny) and hotel staff to take care of. She sees a grown-up world with groupies and beer drinking. Ella is cute little girl and not nearly as bratty as maybe Eloise, but the story is again sad. Her mom is not there, she is in a sense alone in a grown-up world.
I read the book to my children. Even though we are suburbanites and the urban lifestyle is very different my kids enjoyed the book. They thought Ella was funny, at the end they felt sad for Ella even though she got to do all this running around. I enjoyed being able to share with them the difference in lifestyles in our world. My five year old loves to sit and look at the pictures.
If you are familiar with the Eloise stories you can really appreciate how Ella is an urban parody. Like I said, my kids enjoyed the story, but I think it will resonate more with adults. Some people will love it and others may not, but I think the same is true for Eloise.
Buy your copy!
As of December 1, 2009, According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), product reviewers on blogs must disclose whether they received products for free or received payment for their review. The books I review on this site (A NOVEL REVIEW) are sent to me by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice. I never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are my own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.
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