Author celebrates her character Fancy Nancy with readers

SHARON — Author Jane O’Connor, author of the Fancy Nancy books for young lady readers, took part in a Fancy Nancy party and book signing at the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon on June 24.More than 40 Fancy Nancy books have been published since 2005. “The success of the Fancy Nancy books has been the biggest surprise of my professional life,” O’Connor said in an interview. “I never expected it to hit in such a big way or continue for so long.” Inspiration for the series came, she said, “one night when I was making dinner for my family. All of a sudden the name Fancy Nancy flew into my head. I liked it because it rhymed. After dinner that night I sat down and began writing the first manuscript.”O’Connor grew up in Manhattan and recalled that, when she was about 4 years old, “my grandmother and great-aunt came to visit and I met them at the door in a tutu, a red satin cape and my mother’s high heel shoes. At that age I thought I was looking glamorous for my guests.”“My mother was very pretty in a chic, understated way and I always wanted her to look more like the mother of a friend of mine, who was very blonde, wore a lot of jewelry and wore a lot of makeup. At that age I wanted my mother to be fancier. So that was the germ of the idea for the character.” O’Connor worked as an editor of children’s books for four decades. These days she is editor-at-large for children’s books at Penguin and works three days a week.“I like going out to work,” she said. “I would not be happy sitting in front of a computer at home writing full time.”In addition to children’s books, O’Connor has written one adult book, “a goofy mystery set on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, mostly at a private school like the one our children went to. Its title is ‘Dangerous Admissions.’Actually I am way overdue on a follow-up to it.”Until recently, all of the Fancy Nancy books have been large-format illustrated books aimed at younger readers. O’Connor has collaborated on all of them with illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser. “I think her illustrations are a very big part of the reason the books have become so popular. Before becoming an illustrator, Robin was a professional ballerina and she has a wonderful sense of body language.”O’Connor’s first Nancy chapter book was recently published, and she is working on a second.Asked why a chapter book was added to the series, O’Connor replied, “I started receiving letters from young readers who wrote, ‘I am 8 years old now and would love to read a longer book about Nancy being older.’”The first Nancy chapter book is called “Nancy Clancy.” She and a friend want to be detectives and are looking for a crime to solve. The second chapter book, called “Nancy Clancy’s Secret Admirer,” will be published in November.“I have two sons but people always ask me if I have little girls and if that was where I got the idea from. Having had two sons who are grown men now, it is really a lot of fun to go to events like the one at the Hotchkiss Library in Sharon, where these little 5 year old girls come dressed to the nines. I get a tremendous kick out of that.”