Customer Reviews

Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire!

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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!!

I always enjoy the Fancy Nancy books and my daughter Nancy is always happy to have one read to her. We recently added this one to our collection. Like the rest of the series, it is a fun and worthwhile book; however, this one is a little tougher for the little ones.

As a parent and I teacher, I like this one a lot. It encourages kids to observe the world around them and teaches them how to be good and fairly scientific explorer. There's a lot of good information about insects, arachnids, and birds here, among other things. And, as always, Ms. Glasser's artworks pops off the page with its color and detail.

My only warning would be that this book is not as good as the others for the younger ones. My daughter just turned three and I think all the information is a little much for her. The story gets a bit subsumed by the teaching. In any case, she doesn't ask for this one like she does for the others. I'm sure that some day she'll appreciate this one much more, but it may take a few years.

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."

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.

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.

Fancy Nancy
Explorer Extraordinaire!
Jane O'Conner

This book is smaller than the Fancy Nancy picture books. It also has more words, and the words are smaller on the pages. But the fancy pictures are just as fun.

Nancy and Bree are the founding members of the Explorer Club. When Freddy and Nancy's litte sister want to join, they say, "Maybe." They aren't sure if the younger kids are mature enough.

What every explorer needs:
Essential:
Long sleeve shirt and pants
Note book and pen
Baseball cap

Not Essential:
Camera
Binoculars
Lace Gloves
Magnifying glass
Glamourous sun glasses
Little maracas, for when
we feel like dancing
Frenchy the dog

A club house is also essential.

Along with the fun of Nancy and Bree exploring Nancy's, Bree's and Mrs. Devine's yards, we learn facts about insects, such as, a spider is not an insect but a butterfly is. We learn about birds, ants and even flies. Be prepared for the usual fancy words. "Just because you're exploring doesn't mean you can't be fancy!"

Jill Vanderwood
Author: What's It Like Living Green?: Kids Teaching Kids, by the Way They Live

What a fun, informative book this is! both my girls LOVE to be outdoors so this is the book for them. Very educating and well as entertaining and even has some things you can do with your kids in it. I highly reccomend this one!

Great book...just like the others. This one seems to be a little longer then the others and more detailed....which is fine, just not what my 6 year old expected. Helps show kids how to use their imaginiations!

Fancy Nancy and her best friend Bree head back to nature, trailing their adorable siblings, and the perfect backyard book begins. While we already know, from Bonjour Butterfly, that the girls are fond of beautiful butterflies, leave it to author Jane O'Connor to find a way to make other bugs...well, if not fancy, at least fascinating, for my little ones! Robin Glasser's colorful illustrations are augmented in this book with photographs, index cards featuring nature-inspired projects, and crayon drawings from Nancy's own journal. And because we are told right at the start that "Everything in this book is scientifically accurate. (That's a fancy way of saying it's all true.)", the nature lessons here -- along with the now-expected vocabulary boost -- makes this book an excellent addition to any Fancy Nancy fan's library.