Eloise in Moscow
By Kay Thompson
and Hilary Knight
Simon & Schuster, $17
ISBN 0689832117

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REVIEW BY MIRIAM DRENNAN

Here's the thing of it: Eloise in Moscow has returned.

The final published collaboration of author Kay Thompson and illustrator Hilary Knight, Eloise in Moscow was originally released in 1959, following on the heels of its enormously successful predecessors Eloise, Eloise in Paris, and Eloise at Christmastime. And now, Simon & Schuster has reissued Eloise in Moscow to the delight of readers of all ages.

The idea of someone like Eloise in a country like Cold War Russia is dangerously funny. Thompson and Knight took this idea and traveled to Russia, spending three weeks absorbing information and sketching. This was before glasnost, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, before Russian democracy. And yet, despite all the changes Russia has undergone, Eloise's stint as "Little Miss Diplomat" remains timeless.

Eloise tours us through this mysterious and gray country, describing all she sees and does with the honesty and frankness of an explicitly observant six-year-old. It takes a couple of history lessons (or a grandparent's recollections) to read between Eloise's baffled yet authoritative lines. It is also important to note that Knight veered from the traditional Eloise pink, illustrating spreads in yellow and black instead.

This is what we are: absolutely thrilled, thank you very much.