To escape the giant Nook displays and over-sized discount coffee table books, I went to the children's section, where I always go, because it looks colorful and feels safe. Though it was almost nine o'clock (P.M (Eastern Standard Time)), there were children there and their mommies were reading them gimmicky Halloween stories. That made me miss my parents. I browsed in the chapter books and then the picture books. I got teary and weirdly nostalgic. And then I came across and read Love You Forever, and got even tearier.
Then another, much cheerier book caught my attention: Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet. Now, I had seen some of these Fancy Nancy books before and they looked pretty to me, certainly, but I discounted them as a modern fad (like Pokemon or Harry Potter). But there was a mermaid on the front. A mermaid. So I read the book cover to cover, standing awkwardly in front of the shelf. Then I wanted to read more. Maybe there were more mermaids (there weren't). I plopped down on the hard carpet and pulled all of the in-stock Fancy Nancy books off the shelf and read them alphabetically. I've decided they're alright. The illustrations are truly lovely, though. They are so watercolor-y and soft. I especially love Nancy's orange hair, which is always piled up so curly and messy and Miss Frizzle-y on the top of her head.
Besides the picture books I read on the floor of Barnes and Noble, there are also I-Can-Read Fancy Nancy books and all kinds of other paraphernalia. It can be so overwhelming, especially for a collector of Fancy Nancy things. Just Google her. There are toys and dolls and even birthday cakes. As far as the books themselves go, they are maybe a little girly and didactic. But so pretty.
Fancy Nancy isn't the best thing to happen to children's literature since Peter Pan, but she sure is exactly how I imagined myself to look whenever I played dress-up. And I like that.
