Sunday, August 15, 2010

Book Review - Fancy Nancy: Ooh La La! It's Beauty Day


Author: Jane O'Connor
Illustrator: Robin Preiss Glasser
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's (June 22, 2010)
Age Level: 3 to 8 years
Source: Won in a Contest
Rating: 4 Stars

Description from GoodReads:

What better way to fancy Mom up for her birthday than to treat her to a super-deluxe beauty day created by Fancy Nancy herself? It's a pampering paradise, and right in the backyard! With relaxing music, fragrant lotions, colorful nail polish, and foamy mousse, Nancy gives her mom a total makeover. She even treats her to sumptuous refreshments and special entertainment. But when the pampering suddenly goes too far, has Nancy ruined her mom's big day?

Complete with tips and recipes for creating a super-deluxe beauty day of your own, Fancy Nancy: Ooh La La! It's Beauty Day will inspire budding beauty experts to open up shop and join in the deluxe fanciness!


Before I start, I just want to thank Mel at He Followed Me Home Blog. Mel is a Canadian. After winning this book in a HarperCollins contest, she realized that they would only ship to someone stateside. Being her wonderful self, she asked if I would like it and had HarperCollins send it to me. Thanks to Mel and HarperCollins my school library now has a new book.

Now on to the review - I am a fan of Fancy Nancy books. Little girls especially love Nancy and all of the situations that they finds herself in. Fancy Nancy is bold, funny, and well fancy. As an educator, I appreciate that the books expose children to a variety of vocabulary that might not normally be included in picture books for young readers. In this latest installment, Fancy Nancy has a special treat for her mother on her birthday - a day of pampering and beauty treatments. Long-time readers and fans know that any day of pampering organized by Nancy will include much, much more.

In traditional Fancy Nancy style, she has set up a French spa in her backyard. With her younger sister as her helper, they prepare to give mom a full beauty make-over including a facial, mani-pedi, lunch, make-up and hair. Though readers know that there will be something that will go wrong, you still find yourself chuckling along the way. Nancy's attempts to provide her mother with the right atmosphere include serenading her with music performed on a recorder, card tricks, and a special lunch. When things go a little awry, Nancy is thankful for the help her friend and neighbor Mrs. DeVine.

The formulaic story pattern, bright signature illustrations, and crisis averted ending are what fans of Fancy Nancy have come to love and appreciate about these books. And this one doesn't fail to deliver. However, I struggled with one thing. The addition of the "tip and recipe" boxes on many of the pages. On the one hand, I loved seeing the recipe for yogurt parfait or the tips for braiding hair. But on the other hand, there is already a lot happening in a Fancy Nancy book. Some of the pages almost seemed a little too crowded which was particularly noticeable with the smaller book size as compared to some of the other Fancy Nancy books. Fancy Nancy's Ooh La La! It's A Beauty Day would have benefited from the increase in size in my opinion.

Regardless of size, fans of Fancy Nancy will enjoy this latest book in the series.

2 comments:

  1. You totally beat me on posting this. I also won this from Harper Collins and my little girl loves it! I'm sure your students will really enjoy this addition to their library!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I try to schedule all my posts so that others can see what I am posting just in case. But yes, my younger kids will love it.

    ReplyDelete

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~ Anna Quindlen

Good children's literature appeals not only to
the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
~ Anonymous ~