Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire!

Are you at times concerned about all the "fluff" that little girls are soaking up? Despite a better selection of intelligent, strong, heroic female characters out there for girls than "back in the day" when we were kids, there is often still present a message sent to girls that they should be pretty, stylish, popular, thin, etc. Well, this is not an issue with Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire! After my daughters loved one of Fancy Nancy's sticker books this past winter (which had no educational value other than a few new vocabulary words), I was not sure about ordering them this book. I knew they'd love it, but I wasn't crazy about yet another "divas are cool" book. But, this one is nothing like that!! It is wonderful! I have never witnessed my 4-year-old and 2-year-old so engrossed in and engaged by a book. Without giving away the story, there's just tons of nature identification, facts to fascinate the young mind, and even activities offered. As another reviewer stated, it takes us a while to get through this book because it sparks so much conversation--questions my daughters ask, analogies they draw, anecdotes about their own experiences outdoors, observations about the great illustrations, and so on. I was really surprised by the primary focus on educational content while still retaining some of the "fancy" element that girls love. It's really a terrific book that refreshingly sends the message to the little wannabe Fancy Nancys that "knowing all about about science and nature is cool."

I've loved all the Fancy Nancy books! I don't get into the glam as much as other Fancy Nancy followers, which is why I liked this one so much. This book is full of accurate scientific terms and information. This book is more structured & organized than other Fancy Nancy Books. It encourages children to focus their endless curiousity in an exciting educational way, while of course, being fancy =) Book is approx. 9 in. top to bottom & 7 in. across. It is a bit longer than the other FN books, the story is 30 pages. The book is about Nancy and Bree's exclusive explorer club - they collect leaves, watch birds and butterflies, and inspect insects. Before getting started,there a beautifully illustrated list of essentials & nonessentials needed to be an explorer extrordinaire Club Rules: 1. map of territory (which limits on area they can explore) 2. Nobody in the club thinks bugs are gross. 3. No Touching: just looking 4. Crying is not allowed (unless a really good reason) 5. We never catch butterflies because they are fragile. 6. We don't pull leaves off trees,trees need them to make food Rules 2 & 3 (pgs 8-13) the exploring gets scientific... physical features that make an insect an insect, anthill discovery & some sugar leads to brief overview of ant life, interesting facts about flies, benefits of lady bugs and spiders, and how spiders differ from insects. Rules 4 & 5 (pgs 14-19) They move onto Mrs. Devine's flower garden full of butterflies. There are 3 different types of butterflies pictured. Butterfly life cycle illustration is too cute! Brief scientific information about butterflies being insects and their life cycle. A Look Alike page to illustrate the differenct physical characteristics of butterflies and moths. Four types of wildflowers are pictured...all with fancy names. (pgs 20-23)Lunchtime leads to discussion about birds and what makes birds special. There are 3 bird pics - pigeon, robin, sparrow. Then the girls go to their club house and learn fascinating facts about Hummingbirds(the official bird of their club). Rule 6(pg.24) thru end: The previous night's storm knocked off leaves from deciduous tress (evergreens are also mentioned)for the girls to collect. There a 4 different leaves pictured. The younger girls find a baby robin. Nancy's Mom returns the baby to it's nest, and shares some interesting information about animals and their babies. It ends with Nancy and Bree voting on accepting 2 new memebers =) EXTRA FUN FOR MOM AND DAUGHTER: Recipe to make Nancy's Extra-Fancy Lemonade Crafts (easy to make) - 2 bird feeders - Lavish Leaf Crown I love this book, it's great to be fancy and smart =) Highly recommend for ages 4 & up....I learned a lot too!!

Another adorable book for Fancy Nancy. It is laid out a little different than the first few. It is more educational about insects and things you find outdoors. It has so much to talk about that I often find it is not a quick read for bedtime when you read more that one book. But we love it.

Nancy doesn't just use ordinary words, she uses fancy words to describe her surroundings. This is a great book to introduce the usage of a thesaurus with children. I use her books to encourage my students to choose synonyms (from a thesaurus) in their creative writing to replace worn out words with "fancier" words the way Fancy Nancy does.

I have been a huge fan of the Fancy Nancy collection since the first time I opened the first book and began to read to a group of children. As a children's bookseller, there are certain characteristics I look for when choosing a book to read aloud... will it engage the children, does the text flow, is the main character easy to relate to, etc. Fancy Nancy...any which one... is all of those and more!! We have had quite a few Fancy parties in our store with nearly one hundred children: tiaras, feather boas, blusher, body glitter, gloves, heels, beads and the list could go on forever!!! Jane O'Conner has been with us to celebrate on at least three different occasions and Robin at least once. Okay, sorry for the tangent, Explorer Extraordinaire was a lovely surprise finding Nancy and Bree with their siblings and friends as usual however, this book includes wonderful non-fiction that almost every child aged 4-5-6-7+ years old will love! Butterflies, ladybugs, spiders and flies! Beautiful wildflowers, real recipes and even a map! Be sure that there's glitter and French and lessons to learn. Nancy is the same girl we have come to love, she's just a little older; just as most of her original fans are! This book will not disappoint, Jane and Robin have done it again and it's wonderful!