Review By JESSICA ALMY
I’ve got mixed feelings about the Fancy Nancy series by Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser. On one hand, Nancy is a bright, confident girl who likes learning new words and being thoughtful to her friends. On the other, what she really loves — her whole raison d’etre — is to be fancy. And heaven knows there’s enough princess lit geared to little girls.
So when kiddo received Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, I had qualms. Would Nancy go for a purebred papillon, like her neighbor Mrs. Devine’s dog Jewel? Would she convince her parents they absolutely needed to go to a breeder, where they could find the fanciest dog?
Happily, the answer to both of those questions is NO. Nancy does dogsit Jewel for a day, but when her parents stop by the local animal shelter after an evening out (eating what I can only assume is pizza with Daiya “cheese” at King’s Crown), she falls in love with Frenchy. In the end, even Fancy Nancy finds her dream dog is a rescue.
To O’Connor and Preiss Glasser’s credit, the shelter message is crystal clear — but kids might need to be told that Frenchy is not only a shelter dog, but a mutt. (Nancy’s dad’s reference to a “La Salle spaniel,” a nod to the name of the animal shelter, might be too subtle for some.)
Ideal for kids ages 3-7. (Publisher says 4-7 but kiddo loved this series when she was 3.)
Homa // Apr 30, 2012 at 9:35 am
I had to laugh, I totally missed the joke about the shelter name even though we’ve read the book countless times!
Jessica // Apr 30, 2012 at 9:59 am
I love it — such a clever nod to the importance of adopting dogs from shelters! Many of my childhood canine companions would have been Baypath terriers and water dogs (since they came from Baypath Humane Society – http://www.petfinder.com/pet-search?shelterid=MA141).
Jenn K // May 13, 2014 at 10:05 am
My daughter just received this book for her 5th birthday. We’ve resisted the Fancy Nancy series for the reasons you mentioned, but my daughter squealed with delight to finally have a Fancy Nancy book. I was happy with the story line of the book and that Nancy only mentions being fancy once in the book, though the images are full of lace and flair. I appreciate the shelter dog message and the focus on learning vocabulary words and my daughter loves it.
Jessica // May 15, 2014 at 3:39 pm
Lace and flair aren’t all bad, so long as they’re ok for boys and girls both and don’t get in the way of more important topics! 🙂