On Monday, Jane O'Connor, author of the children's book series Fancy Nancy read her newest book to the students at Lincoln School. Since creating the first Fancy Nancy book in 2002, O'Connor has added nearly 30 books to the collection.

"I'm here today to read the latest picture book I wrote and I find being with kids really kind of inspiring," said O'Connor. "I can't tell you how many ideas I've gotten from just being with kids and reading to them. Even when I was a child I loved to make up stories. I have written books for kids for over 30 years."

The students and staff at Lincoln welcomed O'Connor by dressing "fancy" for the day. The students at the school were excited to meet O'Connor.

"I like Fancy Nancy because she is beautiful," said kindergartener Mackenzie Smith. "I'm a big fan of hers."

"I'm excited for Fancy Nancy author because I like to be fancy and to dress up fancy," said Macey Langtry.

Susan Faber, Anderson Books Author in School Representative, arranged the reading with Lincoln School. Faber retired from teaching after 36 years and is now arranging book readings with authors at the local schools.

"We are here to welcome Jane O'Conner," said Faber. "She is here to celebrate one in a variety of her Fancy Nancy books. Her most recent is called Fancy Nancy's Fancy Boutique. It's a lot of fun, and the mystery today will be to find out what is she going to do with those bananas?"

The teachers at Lincoln were also almost as excited as the children to see O'Connor. Kerry Norton, Lincoln teacher, was thrilled about getting the students excited about reading.

"I always think its fun to get the kids involved in reading and literacy anyway you can, and there's lots of different ways," said Norton. "Maybe if some kids make a great connection just by having this and it gets them excited about reading then that's the way we should do it. Anything to get kids excited."

Principal Shannon Cross was also excited and thankful to have O'Connor visit.

"Literacy is part of our school improvement goal here at Lincoln," said O'Connor. "It's foundational to get the kids to develop a love for reading and Jane writes amazing books. Lincoln is so thrilled to have her here to spark that interest. The kids and staff are dressed up and as you can see we are very excited to have her."

And the end of the book reading, O'Connor allowed the students to ask her questions.

One little girl asked, "How did you come up with idea for Fancy Nancy?"

"I was kind of like Fancy Nancy when I was a little girl," said O'Connor. "My grandmother would come over on Sundays and I would get all dolled up to have her over. Nine years ago I was thinking about that as I washed dishes and the idea for Fancy Nancy came to me."