“Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words: From Accessories to Zany” by Jane
O’Connor, illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins, 9780061549236,
$12.99, 32 pages, for ages 4 to 8)
In this newest Fancy Nancy picture book, Nancy takes a time-out from telling
smashing tales to share some of her favorite posh words. It’s a charming,
vocabulary-building book that’s fun to read and--with its delightfully
detailed illustrations--lovely to look at!
For each letter of the alphabet, Nancy devotes a page that contains a fancy
word, its definition, a sentence that shows that word in context, and a
gorgeous illustration. Here’s a favorite example:
“Improvise: to use whatever is handy in order to make something. I wanted a
canopy bed, so I had to improvise. I used a sheet, a mop, and a broom!”
The accompanying picture shows Nancy laid out in a swoon on her fabulously
decorated bed. She’s surrounded by flowers, chocolates, and a
breakfast-in-bed tray--all under her cleverly improvised canopy, rigged up
using a sheet and cleaning supplies. Young readers will adore pictures like
this, which overflow with exciting details for their attentive eyes. As they
pore over the pictures, of course, they’ll being learn that “gorgeous” and
“glamorous” are especially splendid ways to say “pretty,” and that an
“excursion” is a word meaning “a special trip.”
There has been a wealth of Fancy Nancy books out in recent months: a sticker
book, “Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly,” two early step-readers, and now this
awesomely cute vocabulary book, which to judge from your pre-orders, is
already a favorite with teachers. It’s a great stepping-off point for
teaching new vocabulary words or for introducing the concepts of synonyms
and antonyms. Well done, Nancy. Bravo!
Review by
Mark David Bradshaw, April 30, 2008
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