Fanny

by Holly Hobbie

All Fanny wants in the world is a Connie doll, but Mom says "NO " But no one ever said she couldn't make one instead With some scissors, glue, and her craft box in hand, Fanny sets out to replicate Connie, but it's Annabelle who is the result of her efforts. A little lopsided and a little unkempt, Annabelle turns out to be the companion Fanny has always wanted. Though at first her friends turn up their noses, in the end everyone learns that using...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316166871
• ISBN13: 9780316166874
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 10.1" x 10.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Cute story!

My 5-year old daughter and I really like this book! It has a nice message that seems to be "it's okay to be different." It also seems to poke fun at Bratz dolls (or dolls of that style) which I secretly enjoyed (since those are not my favorite type of dolls)! It is a nice story, a good bedtime story, and seemed to hold my daughter's attention really well. I also liked the way the relationship between the mother and daughter was portrayed.

We really enjoy this story

I just read this one to my six year old son and 4 year old daughter and they loved. I do too. It's simple and sweet and makes you feel okay for being different. Now they both want sewing machines for their birthdays!

Wonderful Book

This book is excellent for children who are unique in their own special ways. Fanny is a little girl who wants the doll that every other girl has, but her mom won't get it for Fanny. Fanny decides she'd make her own doll. When her friends see her doll, they ignore it and instead play with the popular dolls. Fanny puts away her doll since it was different. Fanny get's a sewing machine from her mom, which her friends also put down. That night, Fanny starts thinking about her doll and didn't want the doll to be scared/lonely. By morning, Fanny has realized how special her doll is because she made her. Fanny is then invited over to her friends house and proudly brings her doll. Fanny and her friends play with the popular dolls and Fanny's doll. At the end of the book, Fanny gets creative again. Really cute book!! This is a great book because it addresses a common issue amoung children (and parents too). Children will identify with Fanny because of the emotions she experiences with her Mom and her friends. In the end, Fanny was proud of her creative uniqueness which she was able to comfortably incorporate into her next play date with her friends.

Aw. She thinks she's people.

Oh this just doesn't make a jot of sense. It doesn't. Look, under normal circumstances books with big flashy morals make me cringe. You know what I'm talking about. Books with agendas. The ones that foist some kind of message on you like "be yourself" or "cheating is wrong". To make a book with that kind of blatant preachifying actually work as a whole you need to be some kind of amazing writer. You need serious skills. And then I pick up Fanny by Holly Hobbie. I pick it up, I read it, I choke up, I read it again, and for the life of me I have absolutely no idea why a book that could have been so messagey and didactic instead ends up sweet, loving, and smart. What the freaking heck happened here? For Holly Hobbie (author/illustrator of those fabulous Toot & Puddle books) to switch gears entirely and write a picture book about a little girl, LET ALONE a picture book that thwaps Barbie and Bratz dolls upside the head, and for that same book to be an overwhelming and utter success.. well, I can't explain it. By all logic this book shouldn't work. The fact that it will charm you utterly and completely is a testament to Ms. Hobbie's mad skillz in the writing and illustrating arenas. Bow before her, people. Then scratch your head in bafflement. If there is one thing in the world Fanny wants it is a Connie doll. One of those big-lipped designer dolls all her friends already have. And when Fanny's mom says in no uncertain terms that she will not purchase that toy for her daughter, Fanny comes up with a solution. Why not make her own? The end result is a lovely comfy doll she names Annabelle that looks nothing like the store bought Connies everyone else has. At first Fanny grows embarrassed of her "different" doll. But after a little consideration she decides that even though Annabelle isn't like the others, she's still a great doll and worth playing with (particularly when the Connies are nurses and Annabelle's the doctor). And when she starts making her more clothes, Fanny decides to give Annabelle her own little doll. That doll's name? Why Connie, of course. They publisher is sort of toting this with a Holly-Hobbie-Goes-Human angle. Those of us who were children of the 70s and 80s, however, might be surprised to learn that this is not the first time Ms. Hobbie has penned people rather than pigs. If you flip through her illustrated memoir The Art of Holly Hobbie you'll find quite a few Sunbonnet Sue pictures. The minute I saw these they triggered an immediate response in the spiderwebbed crevices of my memory. Holy cats, I used to read Holly Hobbie when I was a kid! After gasping a little over this revelation, however, it's clear that the author has refined her art over the years. Where in the past her girls were often be-hatted with faces hidden in silhouette, Fanny's mug is clear and present every step of the way. If Ms. Hobbie ever sported a reluctance to do people, it's now impossible to tell. Let's go back to Fanny though. Take a gander at thi