'Fancy Nancy' strikes little girls' fancy An Irvine illustrator's exuberant character hits it big with a new book and products.

By TERI SFORZA The Orange County Register

Move over, Dora. Cinderella? Snow White? Get some feather boas. Fancy Nancy has arrived. There are Fancy Nancy board games and Fancy Nancy Colorforms sets. Fancy Nancy collector's dolls and Fancy Nancy rag dolls. Fancy Nancy wall calendars and Fancy Nancy sticker books. Two new Fancy Nancy "I Can Read" books (one spicily titled, "Fancy Nancy and the Boy from Paris"), and, of course, the third book in the bestselling "Fancy Nancy" series, "Bonjour, Butterfly," released on Super Tuesday and generating more excitement than Barack Obama with the under-5 set. "Local gal makes good" doesn't quite sum up what's been happening to Irvine illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser over the past several years. In addition to the nearly 100 weeks "Fancy Nancy" spent on the New York Times best-seller list (and her other bestsellers with Lynne Cheney and Garrison Keillor, and the soirees at the vice presidential mansion, and the new book on etiquette she's doing with the Duchess of York), there are the devoted legions of tiny girls in pink tutus, yellow fairy wings, fake fur stoles, purple boas, outrageous baubles and sparking tiaras who eagerly greet her everywhere she goes, as they did Tuesday at Whale of a Tale bookstore in Irvine. There were hundreds of them. Tiny bodies packed into the store as an animated Preiss Glasser read a supersized "Bonjour Butterfly." More fans were stuck outside, straining to hear, on tippy toe, peering through the glass. "We have a situation," store owner Alex Uhl whispered to Preiss Glasser. So Preiss Glasser finished the book ("I'm overwhelmed!") and led the whole operation to the courtyard. Carpets were unfurled on bricks, Preiss Glasser scrambled to set up an easel for the supersized book, and she began all over again for the newly assembled, finally peaceful, multitude. Did we mention the line of Fancy Nancy room décor and Fancy Nancy bedding due this spring at a mass-market retailer near you? And "Nancy la Elegante" – the Spanish version, due out in April? For those who don't have a girl under 7 in your life, Fancy Nancy is the fireball who adores all things frilly, as well as big fancy words (iridescent, ecstatic, extraordinary) and anything in French. Stuck in a decidedly salt-of-the-earth family, Nancy captures hearts by nearly getting caught up in the glitter, but, in the end, always discovering what's truly important. More than a million copies of the Nancy books have been sold. "I love Fancy Nancy because I like to use lots of fancy words and she has cute clothes and I like her name," said Maddy Korneychuk, 7, of Irvine, bedecked in butterfly face paint. Sawyer Allyn Tull, 4, also of Irvine, sported pink sunglasses, a Tinker Bell fairy costume and jungle-themed gloves. "I like her because she's fancy," she said, summing up the thoughts of many. Preiss Glasser and Uhl – longtime friends – were shocked by the turnout, which they thought would be light because of the presidential primary, and the fact that it was a school night. "Nancy has become such a phenomenon, though, I shouldn't be surprised," said Uhl. The sharp-eyed will note that Uhl appears in the Fancy Nancy books – this time, dancing with a princely gent at Nancy's grandparents' party. The two met about 15 years ago when one of Preiss Glasser's early books came out. "I just fell in love with her," Uhl said. "She's so easygoing, and she takes nothing for granted." Preiss Glasser may be "illustrator to the stars," but it was she who, before the reading, headed to the fabric store to buy material festooned with butterflies, and it was she who joined Uhl in the early afternoon to decorate the store. Preiss Glasser's personal fanciness Tuesday night included a chunky butterfly necklace, found for her by Uhl, and yards of sequined butterfly fabric draped elegantly over her shoulders. Her shoes? Gold, treacherously high heels (on sale at Michael Kors in South Coast Plaza), to which she affixed large gold butterflies. "You like my shoes?" she asked the girls, tugging up her gown to show her feet. The crowd went wild. Preiss Glasser left Wednesday on a national tour to promote the new book. "Nancy has done for young kids what Harry Potter has done for older kids," Uhl said. "It's a great way for them to learn to love books."