Fanny's Dream

(Joan agreed to review one of our favorite picture books, Fanny's Dream.)

I'm 14 years old, and I still like to read Fanny's Dream. Fanny is a farm girl who is dreaming of marrying a prince. Or at least the mayor's son! So when word gets out that the mayor is throwing a ball, of course Fanny has to go. No one thinks she has a chance with the mayor's son, even her own family. But she'll prove them wrong. All she needs to do is go outside and wait for her fairy godmother. Right? Wrong. Fanny ends up waiting for hours and hours for her "fairy godmother" when she finally hears a voice. But that's not her fairy godmother! It's just Heber Jensen. Heber is a nice guy, and he's always liked Fanny, but he was short! Fanny's night wasn't going at all like she had planned. Heber stays outside and talks with Fanny for awhile, but then, he proposes to Fanny! It took her an hour to finally give up her dream, but she decides to marry him.
They marry. Heber is a good husband. He tries to make Fanny feel like a princess at least once a day. They have twin boys. They farm together. They have another baby, a girl. When the twins are 5, they accidentally burn the house down, and Fanny and Heber rebuild it.
One night Fanny goes outside to pick a melon and meets her fairy godmother, years too late. The fairy godmother gives her the opportunity to go to another ball, but what does she choose? She chooses to go back inside to her husband and her children. She realizes that her reality is better than her dream was.