{"id":27878,"date":"2018-12-04T07:30:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T12:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=27878"},"modified":"2018-12-04T07:30:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T12:30:54","slug":"hunt-for-the-elusive-fancy-early-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=27878","title":{"rendered":"Hunting for the Elusive ‘Fancy’ Christmas Present"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A customer came in today to scout some possibilities for her seven-year-old’s\u00a0Christmas presents. Young Rose’s wish list includes “a fluffy fluffy robe,” “a real pink clock,” and “a fancy readable chapter book just for me.” This last item is what she came in for, and Rose’s mom wanted to spot some titles to run by Santa.
\nThe words “readable… just for me,”\u00a0Rose’s\u00a0mother\u00a0explained, means that\u00a0she wants a chapter book she can read on her own without adult help.\u00a0Rose reads at around an easy reader level 2, so\u00a0it turned out to be a bit of a challenge to find a chapter book that fit the description.
\n
\nThe Complete Brambly Hedge<\/em>\u00a0by Jill Barklem from HarperCollins was\u00a0our first thought. It’s sparkling, delightful, one of our store favorites\u2014our staffer Emily alone has sold what seems like dozens\u2014and it most definitely meets the fancy test.\u00a0Sadly, the reading level was determined to be too challenging for Rose just yet, so it was reluctantly set aside.\u00a0(Maybe next year!)\"\"<\/a>
\nThen we searched high and low for a fancy,\u00a0substantial\u00a0early reader collection. The Dr. Seuss\u00a0Big Books of Beginner Books (satisfyingly thick editions\u00a0of five early reader classics collected in\u00a0each book) are perfect for Rose’s reading level, and they are certainly bright and appealing.\u00a0Rose’s mom liked them and thought Santa might agree:
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nBut\u00a0we are still on a hunt to find the\u00a0elusive fancy early reader chapter book.
\nWe\u00a0thought that the George and Martha<\/em>\u00a0picture books\u00a0by James Marshall might squeak by the reading level test, so when\u00a0we get a copy in, we plan to show\u00a0our customer the beautiful\u00a0anthology, George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends Collector’s Edition<\/em>.
\n<\/a>
\nBut this book is also not fancy-fabulous so much as adorable-fabulous, so it\u00a0may not quite fit the bill. And the reading level question is complicated by the fact that the new anthology of these stories contains not just the stories, but additional, wonderful (but definitely not level 2!) appreciations by several children’s book luminaries.
\nShelfTalker readers, any thoughts on\u00a0possibilities we haven’t considered? I put this request out to my children’s bookselling colleagues, and Sara Grochowski suggested The Princess in Black<\/em> series, which would be absolutely perfect if they were\u00a0collected in\u00a0a single very fancy omnibus edition. (Ahem, Candlewick!)
\nWe loved the specificity of Rose’s Christmas wish list, and her mother said she has always had the most unexpected, creative ideas for these lists. Two years ago, when she was five, Rose asked for a nugget of gold from the North Pole. (!) Her mom has no idea how Rose got the idea for this wish, but happily, Santa received\u00a0her request and was able to grant it:
\n\"\"
\nApparently, Rose keeps her gold and letter from Santa very safe. And she is a very lucky child to have a mom who is such a careful scout! She also has an older sister, now 14, who writes fantastic letters to Santa, which always begin, “Dear Santa, I hope you and the missus are well,” and always end, “Don’t forget my sisters! I love them more than anything.”
\nIt’s possible that their mother and I both got a tiny bit teary about that last line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A seven-year-old has some very creative and specific wish list items, and her mother and Santa are up for the quest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}