Review - Fancy Nancy: Every Day Is Earth Day

Fancy Nancy: Every Day Is Earth Day (Fancy Nancy)
by Jane O'Connor
illustrated by Aleksey Ivanov & Olga Ivanov
Date: 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

Being green is important to Nancy--so important that she wants her family to take care of the Earth morning, noon, and night!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I'd hoped this Fancy Nancy title would be good, but I just found Nancy insufferable in this one, and the illustrations (done by Aleksey Ivanov and Olga Ivanov) were too different and therefore distracting.

Rather than being fancy, Nancy just comes across as bossy. I would've liked to see more of Nancy incorporating green ideas into being fancy, rather than unintentionally being a brat by trying to be green. (She turns off her mom's computer when she steps out of the room for a moment, deleting her work. Then she turns off JoJo's lamp and when the kid wakes up in the middle of the night, she's terrified.)

Sometimes, being green isn't practical, either. The book teaches kids things like: "Less than a mile? Then bike in style." That's all fine and good if you're going to the grocery store to buy a can of peaches and a litre of milk. But if you're doing your weekly shop, good luck hauling it all home on your bike. Especially in the middle of a blizzard. (Because the book doesn't differentiate between a trip to pick up a couple of items versus a big weekly shop, kids might end up pestering their parents about all car trips and become as annoying as Nancy.)

I'm all for doing our part to be green. But this book doesn't nearly go far enough. If Nancy really wants to do more for the environment, she should go vegan. I doubt I'm ever going to see that message in a children's book, though.

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

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.67 out of 5