Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire! by Jane O'Connor

In Fancy Nancy: Poet Extraordinaire!, written by Jane O'Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, Fancy Nancy learns about poetry, thanks to her wonderful teacher.  Her teacher reads poems to the children everyday and she also encourages the children to write their own poems on leaf shaped paper, which they then post on the Poet-Tree on the wall in their classroom.

I am truly not a big fan of Nancy Fancy, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the books, it's just that I'm more of a Plain Jane than a Fancy Nancy so a lot of what's in the Fancy Nancy books is silly in my mind, even if it is kind of funny.  I do like how the books introduce children to a broader vocabulary but I hate that it seems like you have to be all fancy to use the vocabulary.  Anyway, this book I like.

Anna loves all things Fancy Nancy, so, of course, she loved this book too.  I loved it because it gave us a chance to talk about poetry and explore some of the different kinds of poetry.  I'm going to try to follow Fancy Nancy's teacher's example and attempt to include a reading of at least one poem together every day.  We're also going to follow Fancy Nancy's example and start copying some of our favorite poems and writing some of our own poems to create our own anthology of poetry.

Under the Party Kit section in the Party Central Section of the Parents section of the Fancy Nancy World website I found a Fancy Nancy Poetry Journal pdf (but be forewarned that it prints very small), and a Poet Extraordinaire Event Guide and Activity Suggestions pdf which has some great learning info and activity suggestions that would be make wonderful additions to a unit on poetry.



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