Review - Fancy Nancy: It's Backward Day!

Fancy Nancy: It's Backward Day! (Fancy Nancy)
by Jane O'Connor
illustrated by Ted Enik
Date: 2016
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

Why is everything topsy-turvy today? It's Backward Day at Fancy Nancy's school!

Everyone is dressed for the occasion. When Ms. Glass can't think of any more backward ideas for the class, Nancy comes up with the perfect way to celebrate the day.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Many of the I Can Read! titles about Nancy and her friends feature some kind of dilemma that Nancy must solve. This book is no different. However, the dilemma isn't really much of a dilemma, and I'm disappointed that the book resorts to gender stereotypes to solve it.

The concept of Backward Day at Nancy's school is fun. They greet their teacher with "good-bye", wear their outfits backwards, say the alphabet backwards, make special nametags with their names written backwards, have a backwards race... well, you get the idea. Lionel really gets into the whole thing, managing to keep the whole opposite thing going with everything he says. (I'm not sure if this would be confusing to some kids or not. But I thought it was kind of cute.) Eventually, though, the teacher runs out of backwards ideas. So Nancy comes up with one: a backwards fashion show. The boys all hate the idea, but the teacher goes along with it anyway, allowing the girls to prance around the room while the boys look utterly bored. I don't know what's backwards about a fashion show, anyway; all it really did was encourage Nancy's somewhat superficial tendencies at the expense of half the class.

So, while I was enjoying this one for around the first 75%, the last part really brought my enjoyment to a screeching halt. I'm guessing there are probably some little boys who like these books, and they're not going to find much to relate to in titles like this one. (The kids in Nancy's class were all wearing goofy backwards clothes. I don't see why the idea of showing them off was so abhorrent in the first place, unless the author was trying to make some sort of gender-polarized statement.)

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.17 out of 5