Thursday, December 9, 2010

Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O'Connor

Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glassner

Rating: 3.5 stars

A friend of mine whose daughter is into anything and everything princess asked me what I thought about Fancy Nancy recently.  She and her daughter had read all of the Ladybug Girl books (read my review of Ladybug Girl at the Beach here) but my friend didn't like Lulu the Ladybug Girl very much--"she's kind of a brat," she said.  I agree, though the books are still pretty good.

I was hesitant about Fancy Nancy (here's my review of a bunch of Fancy Nancy books all in one post), but now I like her.  Love?  Not quite yet.  But I appreciate her a little more now, maybe because Lorelei's a tiny bit older than when we first read the books.  Her outfits are definitely outrageous and her insistence on looking her fanciest every moment of the day makes me want to roll my eyes while Lorelei isn't looking.  But, and here's the good part: Nancy always does the right thing.  Sometimes she pouts on her way to doing that right thing, and while I don't even want Lorelei knowing what pouting is--let alone doing it!--at least Nancy arrives at a good ending.

In this book, Nancy and her family go get a Christmas tree and wait for her grandfather to arrive to decorate it.  While waiting for him, Nancy pleads with her parents to let her put up the new tree-topper, a super annoying angel thing that rotates and shines and might do flips, too.  They let her, of course, so the tree is bare except for the enormous tree topper.  Then she and her dog are playing tug-of-war and she knocks the tree over, breaking her beloved tree topper.  Her grandfather arrives and tells her "if you break eggs, make eggnog!" or to improvise.  The whole family gathers around to make a new tree topper with all the glitter, pom-poms and other fancy stuff they can find.

That's the other thing I like about this series: they really do teach new vocabulary words.  Many times the words are great--improvise is probably one of my favorites.  We use it every day when we have something that Lorelei thinks we should (I forget a lot of stuff at the grocery store).  So, we improvise! 

Another thing Fancy Nancy helped us with was our field trip "uniform" the other day.  Lorelei's teachers told her to wear her green school T-shirt, something Lorelei didn't want to do.  I asked her, "What would Fancy Nancy do?"  We didn't wear every necklace and bracelet she owned like I suggested, but we did wear it with polka-dotted leggings, a tutu-like skirt, and big green bows in her hair.  My husband gave me a look, but luckily didn't question the outfit out loud.  It was hilarious, but she was happy and the T-shirt stayed on (until they got back from the field trip, when she asked her teacher to help her take it off). 

So we'll keep reading them--but not buying.  Not sure if I want them just lying around the house for her to get inspiration for her outfits everyday!  Boas and feathers are just not my thing...

1 comment:

  1. I remember your initial review of this series which is why I tentatively checked it out as part of the Christmas-themed library plunder. But I felt just fine with this one :) It makes a great "potty" read for Evangeline.

    ReplyDelete