Heart-y Reading: Fancy Nancy Heart to Heart by Jane O'Connor

OOH LA LA! VALENTINE'S DAY IS TOMORROW.

ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT VALENTINE'S DAY IS FANCY!

Nancy, enjoying a Valentine box of raspberry chocolates, is all decked out in hearts, from the heart-y boppers springing from her headband to her ruffly pink slippers, and her fancy pooch Frenchy is togged out as Cupid, wings, quiver and all. Even her plain-Jane denim and khaki-clad parents are into bouquets in this magnifique new holiday book (with STICKERS!), Fancy Nancy: Heart to Heart, from Jane O'Connor.

In this one Nancy ventures into new literary territory, the mystery genre, as she tries to detect the sender of a fancy Valentine from an apparent secret admirer. Clues abound in Carolyn Bracken's on-the-mark illustrations. The shopping list on the fridge even reads "butter, ketchup, juice, fuchsia glitter." But Nancy has first to dress the part of a detective, of course, slipping on a seriously sleuthy bush jacket and preparing a list of suspects--Robert, Bree, her grandparents, for starters, all of whom turn out to have airtight alibis.

Then she detects another clue. A tell-tale trail of suspicious purple stuff leads to the real perpetrators, her mom and sister, caught fuchia-fingered in the process of making homemade Valentines. With a hug Nancy gives her little sister her own personal Valentine:

"I tell her her Valentine is magnifique. Then I give her a Valentine and the last raspberry cream chocolate."

A plentiful supply of stickers to create original Valentine cards or make Nancy Clancy even more fancy (if that's possible) are included in this happy Valentine's Day book. And when the stickers are gone, the book reminds you that there are plenty more fun games and educational activities to be found at Nancy's website here.