Customer Reviews

Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love this book very much. What an exquisite story and beautiful pictures! I have discovered a lot of things with Amy.
Thank you so much for this lovely book, E. L. Konigsburg!!!

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST PICTURE BOOKS ABOUT NEW YORK CITY THAT I'VE EVER SEEN. IT'S COLORFUL, ENGAGING, AND FUN. THIS BOOK IS PERFECT FOR ANY SMALL CHILD THAT MIGHT BE ABOUT TO VISIT NYC, OR HAS JUST MOVED HERE

I stumbled across this book and think it's just hilarious. I grew up 175 miles and 10 light years from NYC, and I can completely relate to Amy Elizabeth's experiences. Trains underground? Protest marches? Pooper scoopers? A newspaper with no comics? These things are the ones that *still* strike me as strange and wonderful about NYC.

"Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's" has great mural-like illustrations, lots of local color, a superb overall design, and a wonderfully convoluted plot, but it's ultimately disappointing. Unfortunately, in an effort to wring out the "cute" from her story, Konigsburg doesn't play fair with the reader, and the voice of the girl who visits NYC to see her grandmother and tour the sites doesn't ring true.

The young girl looks around 9, but sounds like a 4-year old. She doesn't get the concept of "Chinatown," pooper-scoopers, subways, or even tall buildings, acting as if they're strange New Yorkish customs and objects that someone from Houston (a major metropolitan city, by any measure, as one of the young reviewers here notes) couldn't comprehend. Some of the NYC/Houston comparisons made little or no sense: Amy Elizabeth mistakes the Empire State Building for a restaurant, because it's tall, and she states that there's no need for Pooper-Scoopers in Houston--because they have lawns there. I had to read that sentence several times to make sure it was as nonsensical as I thought.

Her grandmother also underestmates her knowledge, thinking that she requires a translation of everything seen and done in New York: "Today we will go to Bloomingdale's, but first we must take the downtown train--we New Yorkers call it the subway [italicized]--to buy some green tea and ginger-root." Grandma seems like she stepped out of the ghetto in the 1950's or earlier. She goes to the deli and orders a "hot pastrami sandwich and an order of potato pancakes with applesauce," is over-protective ("You look very cold, Amy Elizabeth, and I'll bet your feet are frozen into ice), takes her granddaughter to "Rumpelmayer's" for some hot chocolate, and gets bagels, lox, and cream cheese, and some prune danish. At least they break this mold by going to a production of "Peter Pan," instead of "Fiddler on the Roof," although naturally Grandma has to explain what live theater" is to her culturally deprived granddaughter. I know there are people who enjoy all these things, but ultimately it's stale fodder, especially in a book that has such an innovative plot: A story about visiting Bloomingdale's in which, for various reasons, Bloomigdale's is never visited. Konigsburg explains one of the many impediments to the visit with a riff off a great Yogi Berra line: "No one drives in New York City, Amy Elizabeth. There's too much traffic."

When Amy leaves after a week of failed attempts to see Bloomie's. she realizes that she had a great time anyway, visiting her grandmother, and seeing so many other sites.(some of which are set within a filmstrip bordering the right side of the page) Amy says goodbye with another great line: "I said to my grandma, 'I have had an excellent time not getting there." This book almost gets there too, almost realizes the creativity of its premise and the promise of its illustrations, but it doesn't give enough respect to either Amy Elizabeth's or the reader's sophistation.

E.L. Konigsburg is an outstanding young adult author. However, her foray into children's books is disappointing. While this book does provide an elementary introduction to NYC living, the plot is non-existent, the characters shallow, and the art disappointing. I would not recommend this book. If you are up for a good read, try any of her award-winning young adult literature.

You make Houston seem like a small town. If that little girl has never been to a ritzy department store, it has nothing to do with the fact that she lives in Houston. I live in Houston, and have been to local Saks, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus stores many times.