Rascal becomes resilient, resourceful and adventurous thanks to the permeable boundary between reality and fantasy, not in spite of it. A former first-grade teacher, she recognizes the value of coping strategies that are particular to children. And while many stories for children send their protagonists back to the real world for good - Wendy grows up and can’t return to Neverland Lucy leaves Narnia Jackie Paper abandons Puff the Magic Dragon - Hanlon does not champion maturity as the answer to adversity. Dory’s everyday world is populated with other magical and comic figures, like Mary, her monster, and Mr. With her looming stature and witchy features, she recalls James Marshall’s illustrations of Miss Viola Swamp, “the meanest substitute teacher in the whole world,” in “Miss Nelson Is Missing,” by Harry G. Gobble Gracker, an even more intimidating foe. In the first book, she faces her kindergarten fears by inventing Mrs. Throughout the series, Dory deals with conventional problems - handling scornful older siblings, starting school, making friends, learning to read - in unconventional ways. Gobble Gracker, to take over that benevolent spirit’s nightly visits. And in perhaps her greatest triumph in the series so far, she foils the evil plan of her imaginary nemesis, Mrs. After losing her first tooth, she recognizes the Tooth Fairy, shopping incognito, and chases her through a grocery store. She dumps an objectionable winter coat and devises a pretend game to captivate a weepy friend. Dory faces obstacles both mundane and enchanted, and surmounts them all. The fourth and latest book in the series, DORY FANTASMAGORY: Head in the Clouds (Dial, $15.99, ages 5 to 8), will have fans rejoicing that Hanlon’s hybrid formula is still going strong. Real and unreal get mixed up in one crazy flavor.” On every page, Hanlon’s charming illustrations - if you squint, they resemble a child’s drawings - mix things up as well, interweaving layers of visual and narrative storytelling to invite us in to Dory’s active imagination. As Dory herself puts it: “My two worlds swirl together like a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cone. Abby Hanlon’s marvelous Dory Fantasmagory series, featuring the plucky heroine Dory, also known as Rascal, combines the two. Others, like the Magic Treehouse books, send children on fantasy adventures. Many series for fledgling readers feature mischievous girls and their grade-school exploits: Ramona Quimby, Junie B.

Dory fantasmagory book 5