Fancy Nancy Every Day is Earth Day

The series, I Can Read! has always made me a little leery because I have felt that a specialized program is not best for individual learners who learn to read in different ways. This book is a "Beginning Reading Level 1" book and much like the others has a "theme" - Earth Day. It provides adequate information about the importance of conserving our planet, but other than that, I am not sure that this is the best approach for beginning readers. Fancy Nancy uses "fancyyy" words that she explains as she goes - sort of like a built in dictionary. This is problematic for me because I feel that this takes the whole idea of reading for meaning out of reading. There are plenty of text clues that would allow for a child to figure this out on their own. The pictures are cute, but Nancy is white, and her smart science teacher is Asian, not to mention that there is only one African American child in her classroom. This book does little for me, and would not be a recommendation for children who are learning to read.

Ages:4-8