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Fancy Nancy: Bonjour Butterfly
by Jane O'Connor; illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
HarperCollins

Here I go again, reviewing a book that doesn't need my help here at Book Buds. But, I ... I ... I ... can't help myself. It's Fancy Nancy! I have the new Fancy Nancy and you don't. Neener neeners!

Oh, I'm going to be so popular at Seth's school. All the cool girls will love me and want to be my friend.

Okay, so the teachers will probably look at me peculiarly until my back is turned, when they'll be snatching this out of Seth's backpack and slipping it into their book nook. Hah! Let 'em try.

I never read the original, which is supposed to be superb, (a fancy word for good), but I do have Posh Puppy, which everyone says isn't quite as impressive. By everyone I mean all the little girls who love Fancy Nancy. Which, y'know, is everyone.

The series gives little girls a (usually) well-behaved, truly feminine girl who isn't a princess or a Barbie, doesn't need rescuing, isn't out to snare a prince and loooooves playing dress-up. In the series' third book, she and best, interracial friend Bree love butterflies and plan a butterfly birthday party for Bree. Alas, Nancy must attend her grandparents 50th wedding anniversary instead. Oh, the horror!

Take tantrums and sulking to an extreme and dress it up in taffeta, crinoline and dangly beads, with a glittery tiara seemingly floating in cotton candy tufts of red hair, and that's our ethereal--if temperamental--heroine.

Preiss Glasser's* Nancy is a dazzling confection of jelly-belly colors and dramatic gestures who gets it right in the end, and we forgive her when O'Connor gives her the right touch of humility.

She even gets her butterflies, which makes it way better than Posh Puppy, which has no butterflies at all.

Ooooh ... I can't wait to share this with the other girls.

Rating: *\*\*\

*Special bonus: Here's Preiss Glasser from the 2006 LA BookFest.

The world is about to get a whole lot more fancy. February 2008 will see the release of at least three more Fancy Nancy books, including some 'I Can Read" titles for the youngest connoisseurs (that's a fancy word for 'fans.') And if that's still too long a wait, Fancy Nancy Loves! Loves! Loves! is due out at the end of this month.