Girly Book Throwdown: Fancy Nancy vs. Pinkalicious

Being the mom of two girls, and the head of the Storytime Department here at the Bears' Den, I'm pretty well-acquainted with Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious. Both are some of the girls' favorite characters, and we own a ton of the books from each series. They're frilly, sparkly, glittery, and altogether girly--what's not to love?

But, I have a confession to make. Well, two, actually:

1) I get so excited when I find out there's a new Fancy Nancy book coming out that I honestly don't care whether the girls want it or not...I'm getting it. And if they ever outgrow her, I'll probably keep buying them, anyway. I'm obsessed. (That's a fancy way of saying I'm really into them.)

2) When the girls pick Pinkalicious books at storytime, I put on a giant, fake, toothy grin and exclaim, "Oh, boy! My favorite!" which is Mommy Code for "I would rather listen to that Fresh Beat Band 'Rock Star' song another 20 times than read this book again!" That's saying a lot, too, because if you don't frequent Nick Jr. like we do, you have no idea how many times they manage to play that music video in a one-hour time frame. There's nothing more disturbing than hearing the girls turn on the TV while I'm still in bed in the morning, having the song drift into my bedroom, and realizing the song was already in my head before I heard it. It's the mommy version of the call is coming from inside the house!! It's a good thing my daughters haven't really developed an ear for sarcasm yet.

So, of two incredibly popular, girly picture book series, both of which feature adorable illustrations, what makes me love one and, well, kind of despise the other?

1) Pinkalicious is a brat.
I'm sure I'm not the first parent to recognize this, but it's the most obvious answer. I can handle Junie B. Jones--actually, I think she's hilarious. This excerpt, from Junie B. Jones is a Beauty Shop Guy, made me laugh until tears streamed down my face:

After I got home from school, I runned to my room speedy quick. I grabbed my fuzzy teddy off the bed. And I zoomed to the bathroom. My grandma, Grandma Denise, shouted hello at me. She was in the nursery with my baby brother named Aaron. "HELLO TO YOU TOO!" I shouted back. "ONLY HERE'S AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE! 'CAUSE RIGHT NOW I AM SHUTTING THE DOOR ON ACCOUNT OF THAT IS CALLED PRIVACY, MADAM!"

After that, I locked the door real secret. And I filled the sink with water. Then I dunked Teddy up and down. And I put shampoo on that guy. I singed a happy song. It is called "Dunking Teddy Up and Down and Putting Shampoo on That Guy".

Hilarous, right? So, Junie B. gets a pass for being a brat, because she's a funny brat whose parents and teachers realize she is one and do their best to deal with her antics. Pinkalicious, on the other hand, is just plain annoying--she whines, stomps, demands cupcakes, steals from her little brother, and generally makes you want to reach into the book and smack her one (not that we're into smacking kids here at the Bears' Den, but fictional characters may be an exception). What's worse, the adults around her seem totally oblivious, and her behavior isn't even acknowledged to be bratty until Silverlicious, which is, like, the third book in the series.

Even Purplicious, which is a fairly preachy sequel about daring to be yourself, somehow managed to teach the girls to use the same bratty taunts used by the mean girls in the story, and I've heard a lot of parents say the same thing about that particular book. We finally had to forbid Keira from rolling her eyes and asking dryly, "Shouldn't you move BEYOND [whatever someone likes]" because it was getting a little obnoxoius. Don't get me wrong--I don't think every children's book has to be all preachy-preachy and model perfect behavior and teach Important Life Lessons--but Pinkalicious just seems to promote being a total stinkerbutt...and as a parent, I am usually opposed to stinkerbuttitude. Unless it's funny, of course.

2) Jane O'Connor is a freaking genius.
The Fancy Nancy books are just plain brilliant. I wish they had been my idea, but since they weren't, I just like to sit back and marvel at the concept of creating an adorable, unique character, putting her in well-written, fairly realistic situations, and then sneaking in VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT under the guise of being fancy. It's as if the author said, "Hello, elementary school teacher and mother of girls! Here is the series of your dreams! You're welcome." I can't tell you how many fancy words Keira and Ellie spout off, used 100% correctly and in context, during the course of any given day because they learned them from Fancy Nancy. Ellie asks me if I think she looks marvelous in her dress-up clothes. Keira offers to demonstrate her new jump rope skills. Some lady at Target almost fell over one day when she overheard Keira describe something as transparent. And the best part is, the vocabulary is woven in quickly and seamlessly: "What a dilemma! (That's a fancy word for problem.)" O'Connor often repeats the same vocabulary later in the same book, or in other books, so the new words are even reinforced--but again, seamlessly and without sounding teachery or forced. That's not an easy feat! (That's a fancy way of saying it's hard.) (Sorry. It's difficult to resist doing that.) (Difficult is also a fancy word for hard.) (Okay, seriously. Stopping now.)

3) Pinkalicious is gimmicky; Fancy Nancy is literature.
I know, I know--that sounds totally snobby and like I put way too much thought into my kids' storytime selections, but I can't help it. The plot of the original Pinkalicious book is basically, bratty girl eats too many cupcakes, turns pink and then red, and (no surprise) must force herself to eat disgusting vegetables to resume her normal coloring. I guess the author is going for some sort of healthy eating moral there, except that in constantly describing how icky and yucky green foods are and how Pinkalicious must gag them down, I'm not sure it's going to convince any young readers to trade cupcakes for veggies (as if anything could!).

The sequel, Purplicious, seems to try to make a case for individuality, but the theme is kind of lost in all of Pinkalicious' stomping, yelling at her parents, and sulking after she's taunted for liking the color pink. At the end, she only feels good about liking pink after she meets another girl who likes it, too, which kind of defeats that whole "dare to be different" angle.

Still, I can tolerate those two pretty well, but Silverlicious and Goldilicious are like the literary equivalent of Paris Hilton: I look at them and go, "Someone surveyed all the options in this category and decided to green-light THIS one?!" Goldilicious just makes no sense and feels like a 4th grader wrote it (I'm sorry--that sounds mean, but seriously, read it and tell me that book had any point, theme, plot, or entertainment value whatsoever). Silverlicious finally acknowledges that Pinkalicious is a brat (in this story, at least) and seems to answer that with an "always be as sweet as your sweet tooth" moral at the end, but it takes eons to get there and is just kind of clumsy in its delivery. Plus, the repetitive storyline makes it feel approximately as long as Robinson Crusoe (and don't get me started on all the things I despised about that one!).

The illustrations are really cute and appealing, and so is the merchandise based on the books. In fact, I bought Ellie a Pinkalicious shirt at Target the other day (and it's purple--shouldn't it be pink? Man, I complain about everything, don't I?). But as far as quality children's literature goes, I'm not very impressed.

And then, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we have the Fancy Nancy books--well, most of them. I'm not a huge fan of the museum one, but in general, they're just plain good stuff.

I love that Nancy's problems are realistic and don't feel like they're contrived just to teach a hokey lesson at the end.

I love that she admits when she messes up, feels badly about it, and then does something to fix it (no one assigns her a consequence or fixes it for her).

I love that the endings are plausible: in Fancy Nancy and the Mean Girl, Nancy dreads Field Day because she's a slow runner, so she practices running every day, but she still loses the race at the end. I totally expected a cheesy "practice makes perfect" moral there!

I love that Robin Preiss Glasser's illustrations give the characters and settings subtle detail and depth. When Nancy lies to her parents, the pictures show the knowing glances they exchange over her head. In party scenes, the decorations are amazing and creative (an arch made of a paper chain held up by helium balloons? So clever!). Family members or friends who only appear in the background illustrations in one book may show up and be named in another, giving the sense that this is an entire world that's already formed, and that we're only peeking into it at the moment. And just from the perspective of someone who can't draw to save her life, the artwork is gorgeous and unbelievably intricate. It's definitely fancy!

I love that O'Connor has a sense of irony that some kids won't get, but that always gives Bear and me a chuckle (like when Nancy informs her friend that "Rhinestones are geniune fake diamonds!").

I love that, while so many kids' books appeal to sibling rivalry by giving the main character an annoying brother or sister to battle, Nancy loves to teach JoJo the art of being fancy, gives up her coveted lace fan to buy JoJo a birthday gift, and invites her to become an Explorer Extraordinaire with her and her best friend, Bree. I totally think part of the reason Keira has been such an incredibly extra-sweet big sister over the past several months is that we've been reading a ton of Fancy Nancy books during that time.

I love that Bree is black and Nancy is white, and yet there has never been any mention made of it--no trite lessons on prejudice, no heavy-handed stories where they learn to appreciate each other's cultures...zilch. Of course, lots of children's books have great intentions when they use those techniques to tackle the concept of race and ethnicity, but in this case, I feel like it says so much more to say nothing at all.

Just...love. Lots of love for Nancy.

Not so much for Pinkalicious.

Not that anyone asked...but I feel better now, having gotten that off my chest and indulged my inner literary critic!