NEW YORK — Eloise, the Plaza hotel’s most famous fictitious resident, has officially returned to the storied landmark following a $400 million renovation — with a portrait of the mischievous 6-year-old prominently displayed near its famous Palm Court dining room.
‘‘Children of all ages have been asking for Eloise and it is our pleasure to have her call The Plaza home once again,’’ said Shane Krige, the hotel’s general manager.
Eloise, known to fans worldwide from the children’s book by Kay Thompson (illustrated by Hilary Knight), is an endearing fixture at the hotel. An ‘‘Eloise’’ bubble bath, accompanied by milk and cookies, is available to all guests, and a children’s menu, which pictures Eloise on a tricycle, is available in all of The Plaza’s restaurants.
The portrait was returned to its original spot on a wall outside the sumptuous restaurant, whose stained-glass ceiling, covered with plaster in the 1940s, was uncovered and restored during the two-year renovation.
The Plaza, a National Historic Landmark, first opened in 1907. It officially reopened to the public last weekend after its new owners, Elad Properties, converted the hotel’s original 805 guest rooms into 282 hotel rooms and 181 condominiums.
It's no big surprise that J.K. Rowling has won the Children's Choice Book Award for Author of the Year. Who else has enjoyed a bigger following in kid lit this past decade? Her final installment in the Harry Potter series — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — was the most anticipated children's book of last year.
Around 55,000 across the country voted online and at libraries and bookstores in this inaugural event sponsored by the Children's Book Council. The winners in the Book of the Year categories are:
Kindergarten to Second Grade: Frankie Stein by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Kevan Atteberry
Third/Fourth Grade: Big Cats: Hunters of the Night by Elaine Landau
Fifth/Sixth Grade: Encyclopedia Horrifica: The Terrifying TRUTH! About Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters, and More by Joshua Gee
Illustrator of the Year was awarded to Ian Falconer for Olivia Helps With Christmas
How much do you want to get your hands on J.K. Rowling's handwritten companion book to the Harry Potter series? Enough to write and essay about wizards?
Amazon.com is sponsoring the Beedle the Bard Writing Contest, "an opportunity for Muggles to compete for the chance of a lifetime." The winner will receive a trip for two to London and will get to peruse the ultra-rare The Tales of Beedle the Bard for an entire weekend.
Only seven copies of J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard exist.
To enter, you must answer one of the three following questions, in 100 words or less:
1. What songs do wizards use to celebrate birthdays?
2. What other sports to wizards play besides Quidditch?
3. What have you learned from the Harry Potter series that you use in everyday life?
Contest deadline is April 22, and winners will be chosen in two categories: 13-17 years; 18 and older. For more details on the contest and how the winner will be selected, click here.
Amazon purchased on of the seven copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard for $4 million in December 2007.
Young readers are the judges in the Children's Book Council's first annual Children's Choice Book Awards, a program created to help motivate children to read more and to develop their own reading lists. Votes may be cast online at www.bookweekonline.com until May 4. The winners will be announced at a gala during Children's Book Week (May 12-18).
The finalists in the five categories are as follows:
Favorite Book, grades K-2 Dino Dinners by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping by Eileen Christelow Frankie Stein by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Kevan Atteberry Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist, illustrated by Julia Gorton Tucker Spooky Halloween by Leslie McGuirk
Favorite Book, grades 3-4 Babymouse: Camp Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm Big Cats by Elaine Landau Monday WIth a Mad Genius by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Sal Murdocca The Richest Poor Kid by Carl Sommer, illustrated by Jorge Martinez Wolves by Duncan Searl
Favorite Book, grades 5-6 Beowulf: Monster Slayer by Paul D. Storrie, illustrated by Ron Randall Encyclopedia Horrifica by Joshua Gee Ghosts by Stephen Krensky The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley by Amy Lissiat and Colin Thompson When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger with Susan Katz, illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden
2007 Author of the Year Anthony Horowitz, Snakehead (Alex Rider Adventure) Erin Hunter, Warriors, Powers of Three: The Sight Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2007 Illustrator of the Year Jan Brett, Three Snow Bears Ian Falconer, Olivia Helps with Christmas Robin Preiss Glasser, Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret Mo WIllems,Knuffle Bunny too: A Case of Mistaken Identity
Finalists in the Favorite Book categories were chosen by children's votes from a pool of entries submitted by publishers. Author and Illustrator finalists were selected from a review of best seller lists by the Children's Book Council.
I received as a Christmas gift, from my oldest friend in the world and her family, Frank McCourt's first children's book, Angela and the Baby Jesus (Simon & Schuster, 32 pages, $17.99, ages 5-10), which came out last month.
You might recall Angela from McCourt's best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes. Angela was McCourt's mother, and he digs way into her past for this lovely new story...
The Associated Press reported yesterday that Alice Walker, who won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Color Purple, has chosen the library at Emory University in Atlanta to place her archive.
One of the reasons Walker, a native Georgian, chose Emory is that she visits the university every couple of years for readings and meetings with faculty members. She also said that Emory's relationship with the Dalai Lama, who joined the Emory faculty this year as a presidential distinguished professor, played a part in her decision.
"I can imagine in years to come that my papers and memorabilia, my journals and letters, will find themselves always in the company of people who care about many of the things I do: culture, community, spirituality, scholarship and the blessings of ancestors who want each of us to find joy and happiness in this life, by doing the very best we can to be worthy of it," Walker said in a statement...
It's Halloween week here in The Book Room, and first up we have What the Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy (Candlewick, 295 pages, $15.99) by Gregory Maguire — the man who brought Wicked into the world.
This story within a story begins as a storm is brewing around the canyon where the Ormsby family lives. Siblings Zeke, Dinah and Rebecca Ruth are left in the care of a cousin, Gage, when their parents take off to get some needed supplies...
It's October and Halloween candy has been in the stores for several weeks now, so I suppose it's not too early to start talking about scary stories.
Author David Lubar offers up a third volume in his "Warped and Creepy Tales" series. Amazon.com lists The Curse of the Campfire Weenies: And Other Warped and Creepy Tales as appropriate for children age 9-12, but I'd go a little younger than that, especially if you have a first- or second-grader at an advanced reading level...
In honor of Chicago's Joffrey Ballet naming a new artistic director (see Hedy Weiss' Sun-Times story), I've chosen a book for kids about two dancers — a brother and sister — who rose to fame in the early 20th century.
Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire (Candlewick Press, $17.99) by Roxanne Orgill and illustrated by Stephane Jorisch, colorfully tells the story of the Astaire siblings from Omaha, Nebraska...
Did you know that the Gettysburg Address was panned as "silly, flat and dish-watery" by the Chicago Times? How about the role of nuns on the battlefield? ("They were the only group of women experienced in both nursing and hospital management.") Or that the trousers-wearing feminist surgeon Mary Edwards Walker was rumored to be a spy?
You'll find out these Civil War tidbits and much more — such as the story of "Taps," the snowball battle of 1862 and all about Confederate postage stamps — in Strange But True Facts of the Civil War by Patrick M. Reynolds (Taylor Trade Publishing, 144 pages, $18.95).
These illustrated stories are a great way to learn something about history without reading a textbook. (Meaning, for all you parents out there who maybe didn't pay attention in history class, this will be a nice way to learn a few things while paging through with your kids.)
In today's Sun-Times Books section, children's book reviewer Deborah Abbott writes about a handful of back-to-school books for young readers.
So today I'll stick to the "young readers" theme with One Beastly Beast (Two Aliens, Three Inventors, Four Fantastic Tales) by Garth Nix, illustrated by Brian Biggs.
