Fancy Nancy: Poison Ivy Expert (I Can Read!, Level 1)

I read the original Fancy Nancy book to my nieces, and, at the time, thought that the effect of Nancy stopping every other word to explain that "That's a fancy word for so-and-so" was a little annoying. Having now read several of the early readers, I can honestly say that it is MUCH less annoying

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when you're not the one reading the book aloud!

My niece (who is six and entering the first grade in a week!) found this book easy enough to read with only a little help from me. Help largely consisted of asking her to sound out a word a second time, asking her if the sentence "makes sense" the way she read it, or asking if she's SURE she saw a d (or b, or w) in that word. There were a few words I had to read *for* her, but not more than I'd expect from this style of book. However, it should be noted that she was one of the better readers in her kindergarten class.

The "fancy words" in this book range from the useful - fascinating, miserable - to the more unusual - bouquet, merci, conceal.

It is true, as anothe reviewer stated, that these early readers are less "fancy" than the hardcovers. However, I don't see this as a problem for two reason: First, it's really hard to keep drawing plots out of the conflict between fancy and not fancy, and second because it's nice to read about a girl who likes being fancy but who is otherwise just a kid! If all she did was sit around and be fancy, I wouldn't buy any of these books, no matter HOW educational they are.

I will also note that there are an awful lot of sentences on each page. This is a good book for kids in the later stage of "beginning readers", I think, not in the very early stage.

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