Ooo-La-La: Fancy Nancy for the Beginning Reader

Young fans of Jane O'Connor's sparkly heroine Fancy Nancy can now say "Bonjour" to early reading skills with their favorite girly girl. HarperCollins has added two titles to their venerable I Can Read Level 1 catalog with a pair of beginning reader books about their favorite extraordinary character.

In Fancy Nancy and the Boy from Paris (I Can Read Book 1) Nancy arrives a bit tardy (that's fancy for late) to school just as her teacher is introducing a new boy in her class--and he's from Paris! Nancy is thrilled; after all, Paree is a really fancy place, and a huge poster of the Eiffel Tower adorns her bedroom at home. When silent reading time finally comes, Nancy makes a beeline for her new classmate, whom she finds, strangely enough, studying a book about cowboys in the reading corner. Assuming he's trying to bone up on American culture, Nancy uses the opportunity to start a conversation.

"Do you like the United States?" she asks.

"Yes," Robert says. "Don't you?"

Nancy is disappointed and a bit perplexed (fancy for mixed up) that Robert seems to have no fancy French accent, but perks up when he tells her about his grandfather's horse. "Her name is 'Belle.' That means beautiful in French," he tells her.

Nancy invites Robert over after school, and as they play in Nancy's room, she points to her Eiffel Tower poster and asks Robert about visiting it.

"Yes," he admits, "but that one doesn't have a cowboy hat on it."

"That Eiffel Tower is in Paris, France. Ours has a cowboy hat on the top."

Now Nancy is really perplexed. But then Robert volunteers that he is from Paris, Texas, and Nancy realizes that she must have missed the most important part of Robert's introduction to the class. Still, Nancy and Robert have plain old American fun together, and Nancy ends cheerfully,

"I have a new ami, (French for friend) even if he isn't French!"

In the second book in the I Can Read series, Fancy Nancy at the Museum (I Can Read Book 1) Nancy is overjoyed (fancy for very happy) that her class is on their way to visit the art museum. Nancy is wearing her fanciest outfit, and even her teacher is decked out in a green beret and tunic adorned with an artist's palette with sparkly splotches of paint. Nancy and her best friend Bree can't wait to see some actual masterpieces (fancy for great paintings).

But on the bumpy bus ride downtown, Nancy begins to suffer from mal de mer, (that's fancy for feeling like throwing up) and the driver has to stop the bus while Nancy is sick. Nancy is no longer overjoyed, and the field trip seems ruined.

Mrs. Glass, however, knows just what to do to restore the sparkle to Nancy's day. Helping Nancy clean up and loaning her her own artsy beret and tunic, the teacher saves the day, and Nancy comes home happy with some new fancy words--gallery, landscape, portrait, lavender--and expecially observant, which Mrs. Glass points out is definitely Nancy's best characteristic.

Back at home, Nancy paints her own portrait of herself and her teacher to give to Mrs. Glass with the note "Merci, From Nancy."

Both beginning reader titles include a glossary of Nancy's "special words" for pre-reading help, and at Accelerated Reader grade levels 1.9 and 1.8, these two books are just right for emergent readers who are ready to do some fancy reading! To add a little joie (that's fancy for fun) to the job, there's Fancy Nancy Loves! Loves!! Loves!!! (Fancy Nancy), an sticker book which lets the fancy fancier help Nancy plan a superb (that fancy for super) tea party with all the trimmings.