Nancy Clancy, Secret Admirer

December 15, 2012
When there are no mysteries to solve, Nancy and best friend Bree turn their sleuthing skills to the business of love. It's nearly Valentine's Day, and young girls' hearts turn to love. The little girls play matchmaker after Nancy's guitar teacher, Andy, and best baby sitter in the universe Annie each break up with their respective love interests. Who could be better matched than their two favorite high schoolers? What with Nancy's trademark grown-up words, interesting facts about hearts from their teacher, Mr. Dudeny, and Annie's fondness for French vocabulary, this love story has a little more substance than most chapter books for new readers. Readers will enjoy seeing Bree and Nancy set Annie and Andy up for their "surprise" date and will secretly be relieved when Annie figures things out for herself. Platonic love might not be as exciting to the young girls as romantic love, but it is nice (and more realistic) to see old friends like Annie and Andy enjoy each other's company as friends. Gentle, black-and-white line drawings combine with easy-to-read font and familiar characters to make this the logical series for fans of Fancy Nancy to fall in love with. Ooh la la! What will these two friends think of next? (Fiction. 5-8)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 15, 2012
Grades 2-4 In this second title in the Nancy Clancy chapter-book series (Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth, 2012), Nancy and her friend Bree trade in their trench coats for cupid's arrow. When Nancy discoverswhich is a fancy way of saying learnsthat her guitar teacher, Andy, is single and her babysitter, Annie, is too . . . well, it's time for Operation Eternal Love. Nancy and Bree begin to leave little presents (including a week-old rose and a granola bar) for Annie on her doorstep, and each one is signed Your Secret Admirer, using a silver glitter pen. As the pi'ce de r'sistance (that's piece de ray-zis-taaance), Nancy and Bree stage a meet up for the potential lovebirds at the Sweet Shoppeand it's all scheduled to go down at twilight, or 4:45 p.m. This one is light on the detective side of things, but its pink cover and romance theme will make lots of little girls swoon. As Nancy is fond of saying, Ooh la la. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)