For Art's Sake! Fancy Nancy Aspiring Artist by Jane O'Connor

IT'S SPRING VACATION. I SHOULD BE ECSTATIC, JOYOUS, CAREFREE, (THOSE ARE ALL FANCY WORDS FOR HAPPY.)

BUT I'M NOT.

Nancy Clancy not feeling fanciful? How can that be? But she's just bid farewell to her best best friend Bree, off for a fabuloso New York City spring fling, and the spring rain is so uninspiring.

But it's Mom to the rescue, back from shopping with a huge box of fresh crayons for her little sister and a brand new selection of glitter pens for Nancy. Spring break is saved! Nancy is inspired to turn her clubhouse into a fabulous art studio, and wearing her smock and a French beret just for the atmospherics, she's all set to create.

An afternoon ballet class intervenes, and as Nancy admires the Edgar Degas prints there, she has her first inspiration, turning out Degas-style ballerinas, all of whom have strawberry blond curls like you-know-who. Having tea with Mrs. DeVine on Monday, Nancy is again inspired by the colors of her Claude Monet prints and goes home to her own dark and light period as she turns out Monet-inspired tulips.

And so the week goes. Lionel comes over and they paint each other's portraits, Lionel's good but goofy as always. On the next day Bree's letter arrives with a description of her visit to a famous art museum and the watercolors of Henri Matisse, and Nancy is again inspired to paint butterflies, bending the rules in impressionist style.

As the vacation week begins to draw to an end, a trip to their own museum with her Dad provides Nancy with another inspiration: with an old sheet and leftover house paint, Nancy, Robert, and friends have a blast doing a Jackson Pollock drip painting in the backyard. And when Bree returns with her own sketches from the Big Apple, there's nothing to do but put on a neighborhood art show, refreshments and all.

Finally Nancy relaxes with Mrs. Devine for tea in her garden.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW TIRED MY HANDS ARE FROM ALL THE ART I MADE LAST WEEK"

MRS. DEVINE SAYS SHE KNOWS THE PERFECT REMEDY FOR ACHING ARTIST'S HANDS:

A MANICURE!

Jane O'Connor's hot-off-the-presses Fancy Nancy: Aspiring Artist, (Harper, 2011) with its appended vocabulary and suggestions for inspiring art projects (Harper, 2011). is a perfect spring treat, an antidote to the spring shower blues and a nice jumping-off place for a study of noted artists or a spring break trip to the local art museum as well.