Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas

Fancy Nancy returns in this delightful Christmas adventure, excited at the opportunities for glitz and glamour that the holiday provides. The only time of year when the Clancy household actually looks fancy, Christmas is eagerly anticipated by our eponymous young heroine, who has purchased a particularly elaborate and exciting decoration for the top of this year's tree. But when Grandpa is late in arriving, and Nancy's rough-housing leads to an accident, has the ornament - perhaps even Christmas itself - been ruined...?

Like the other books in this entertaining series, Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas pairs an engaging, informative and ultimately heartwarming story from author Jane O'Connor with adorable, sparkle-enhanced artwork show more from illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser. The heroine's obsession with all things fancy leads (as is always the case with these books) to many vocabulary lessons, worked seamlessly into the amusing narrative, while the conclusion, in which Grandpa teaches Nancy the value of improvising, reinforces the idea that family love (again, as is always the case) trumps fanciness... especially at Christmas! Recommended to Fancy Nancy fans, and to anyone looking for engaging Christmas stories for the picture-book set. show less

Our first Fancy Nancy book. I was surprised by how much I liked this picture book. The illustrations are gorgeous, with an abundance of details and bright colors and cute children faces and poses. Nancy is truly fancy, and so are the pictures in this book. The story is sweet, with concise writing that packs much emotion and meaning in few words. I enjoy picture books that are wordier, but I am always delighted to find picture books that can deliver a story with restraint, because the less words on a page the more likely my young daughters will pay attention throughout the whole story. And in a picture book, the illustrations can carry a lot of the weight of the story, as they do here. Melding text with picture to create a more elaborate show more story is the proper use of the picture book format.

As for the actual story in this book. Nancy is preparing for Christmas, which is a fancy holiday. She and her sister happily participate in various Christmas traditions: caroling around the neighborhood, wrapping presents, and picking a tree. Nancy's most excited, though, about decorating the Christmas tree. She bought a beautiful Christmas tree topper with her birthday money and can't wait to use it. Before her grandpa arrives to help decorate the tree, though, the unthinkable happens - Nancy accidentally breaks her tree topper. She is devastated. Her grandpa, though, has an idea of how to replace her fancy angel; together with her sister, they make a new fancy tree topper of their own.

What a touching portrayal of love, the holidays, and the joy that comes from elements other than the store bought. Did I mention that Nancy has a little sister? Two sweetie girls, a mom, and a dad - just like our family. I am certainly looking for other books in the Fancy Nancy series. show less

This is a great book for around the holidays. It is great to get the kids excited for Christmas. I also loved the illustrations this book gave. It was a great way to show the love they had for Christmas. I also love how Frenchy was In their book considering I just read about her posh puppy. They do a great job from beginning to end describing their Christmas from. the tree to the ornaments and the topper she bought with her money. I love how frwenchy is dressed up. The illustrator did amazing in this book with all the colors. Even when her topper broke her grandpa showed her it wasn't the end of the world and they made one together that was even better.

I’ve always liked Fancy Nancy books since middle school. This is a great read to kids around Christmas because of course that’s the theme, Nancy is making sure her family has the most fancy Christmas. The illustrations were amazing all the colors and glitter were beautiful. From the beginning of the story Nancy describes everything that has to be done for Christmas, from picking out a tree, wrapping gifts, baking cookies, and placing the tress topper.
This story also has great vocabulary and definitions. She introduced new words to the kids and immediately give the definition so the reader understands the word being used.
At the end Nancy learns a lesson from her grandpa, after she knocks over the tree and ruin her tree topper. Her show more grandpa thought her it’s not the end of the word and you can always improvise to make any situation better. So he helped her make new more fancier one. show less

Christmas time reading has to include children's books! I love Fancy Nancy! She's smart and spunky and her words bring to life a world that we should all hold on to. The world is glorious through the eyes of Nancy.

I liked this book in some ways and I disliked this book in other ways. I liked this book because of the whole concept of christmas and all that it entails. I love christmas and as a reader I could relate to what Nancy (the main character) is talking about. For example, she loves to decorate the tree, she goes caroling and she makes christmas cookies. I like to do all the same things when it come to christmas time. I also liked that this book brought in some moderately advanced vocabulary, and that the meanings of the words were included in the book. For example the author uses the word delectable and heirlooms which most children might not know what they mean or how to use them. But this book can teach them how. Although I did enjoy the show more pictures because they were very visually artistic and very detailed I thought that at times they were too much. On the first two pages for example the picture took up the whole two pages an there was only one sentence. I feel that children could get distracted by the big picture and end up forgetting about the words on the pages. The main idea of this book would be that a homemade present or decoration could be just as good as a fancy/flashy store bought one. show less

This book is all about using fancy words. Nancy likes to use fancy words instead of simple words to describe things. She was so ready to decorate the tree and put the topper on, but she had to wait on her grandpa. Her dad went ahead and let her put the topper on the tree because she bought it herself with all her birthday money. Grandpa took for ever and in the mean time they baked cookies, sang Christmas songs, and even opened a dog toy for Frenchy to play with. They played too hard and broke the topper on the tree so when grandpa came he helped her make a new one.
I liked this book because first off it teaches kids words that are not used everyday and then explains them also. Second, it shows kids that if something breaks there is show more something you can do to replace it that may make it even more special! This book it fun to read and to use fun accents while reading. It is very detailed drawings making you take a double look to ensure you saw it all. It also has a lot of color and the words tell what is happening in the picture.
An extension to this book could be that Nancy day dreams about what she will tell her future family about the topper she made for the tree. Another extension could be that after Christmas is over Nancy and her grandpa try to put the old topper back together. While putting it back together they could mess up and have to add some other stuff (such as stuff they used to make the new one.) to finish it. That would also make it a very special heirloom. show less