Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire!

When I picked this book for our assignment, Ihad a case of judgying a book by its cover. I presumed that this was a ffuffy book with no content. I was really wrong. Nancy does describe real poetry. All the different types of poetry. Nancy does describe writers block and how her teacher helped her.

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Learning about the different types of poetry was easy and fun with the pictures of family and friends included in this fun picture book. I learned again don't judge a book by its cover.

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Fancy Nancy loves poetry when her teacher introduces it to the class. But, when she tries to write her poem for the poet-tree, she has writer’s block which makes it nearly impossible to start her poem. When she asks her teacher for help, she gets inspired to write her poem. This is a great book

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for silent reading and a read aloud to help children understand and appreciate poetry.

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Characters: Nancy Clancy (Fancy Nancy), her parents, her grandfather, Ms. Glass (her teacher), her best friend (Bree) and some other friends.

Setting: Fancy Nancy’s home, school, a local store

Theme: Learning to write different types of poetry

Genre: Picture book

Golden quote (optional): “Little by

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little, I get inspiration.”

Summary: Nancy Clancy is a little girl who takes up the challenge of writing poetry. In this book, Fancy Nancy explores the different ways poetry can be written. She surveys her family and friends at school, in addition to talking with her teacher, Ms. Glass. Fancy Nancy always dresses up and is a cute little redheaded girl. For the most part, she dresses up as an ancient Roman orator while exploring the different types of poetry. There is a collection of her favorite poems at the end of the book.

Audience: Pre-school through lower elementary ages

Curriculum ties: Social studies, friendships, beginning writing

Awards (optional):

Personal response: This is an adorable book with an audience aimed at small girls, maybe up through 4th or 5th grade. The main character is endearing and very cute. The book captured my heart with the illustrations and font type. I loved the way Nancy discovers the elements of poetry. Where was this book when I was in school? It brought clarity for many elements that eluded me as a young student. Jane O’Connor has a written several books about Fancy Nancy. This is my favorite thus far.

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I enjoy the "Fancy Nancy" books for many reasons. First, the illustrations. I think they are great because they are very detailed and colorful. Next, I love the way the pages are set up. In "Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire" each page has the main text along with poems and pictures taken by Nancy,

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and even some captions. I think this page set up style in a fiction book is something readers will not be used to, but it will draw them in even more! I also like the font the author chose. It matches the idea that Nancy is a very "fancy" little girl. There is not really a problem or a "message" in the book, but the main idea is simply that Nancy loves to read and create her own poems. The book is filled with little poems written by Nancy and other poets.

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Fancy Nancy is a series favorite for one of the girls I babysit. I think initially she is attracted to the fun, quirky, and unique nature of Nancy. In this certain Fancy Nancy book Nancy is learning about poetry in class. From there she wants to know all about poetry, everyone's favorite poem, and

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how to write her own. This book contains majority of "children written" poetry but it gets a child interested in poetry. In the book Nancy explain many poet terms like anthology, couplet, and ode. The reader even follows Nancy through the struggles of writing her own poem and going through writer's block. Children can relate to Nancy because she is a fellow peer who goes through life like many students do. She goes to school and hangs out with her friends and family. Through the draw and familiarity of Nancy's character students relate to her voice and easily learn from her many lessons on life and learning. By the end of the book the girls wanted to write their own poetry because they were inspired!

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Fancy Nancy spans the age spectrum. It started with picture books, then there are easy readers, and chapters books under Nancy Clancy. Plus some subject books. This is a subject book. Nancy uses her teachers knowledge to tell us what she has learned about poetry. She even includes a little

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anthology at the end. Not a bad book, but not one of my favorite in the series. I actually found it a little boring.

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Fancy Nancy returns in this second partly fictional, partly non-fictional picture-book, following upon Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire!. This installment of the sub-series - these are smaller books than the full-sized Fancy Nancy picture-books, and are not completely fictional, as those

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stories are - focuses on poetry: what it is, what styles it encompasses, and how to write it. As Nancy's class at school focuses on the subject, our favorite fancy heroine attempts to write a poem of her own, only to struggle with the assignment. Will she be able to get over her writer's block...?

Like its predecessor, Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire! manages to be both informative and entertaining, describing various poems, poets, and poetic forms. There is a section at the rear which includes a selection of poems, many of them written for children. These include: Five Little Pumpkins, X.J. Kennedy's In the Motel, Douglas Florian's Picking Berries, Marie Louise Allen's First Snow, Arnold Lobel's Polliwog School, and Jack Prelutsky's As Soon As Fred Gets Out of Bed. The artwork by Robin Preiss Glasser is every bit as appealing here as in previous titles. All in all, a sweet addition to the body of Fancy Nancy stories. My only quibble would be that the author mentions that Nancy's mother's favorite poem is Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee (which was one of my own favorites as a girl), but it isn't quoted in the story like the others, nor is it included at the rear. Leaving aside that oversight, this is one I enjoyed, and that I would recommend to Fancy Nancy fans, and young would-be poets.

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