Naked Nancy: A review
Naked Nancy: A Summer to RememberNaked Nancy is a naturist book aimed at children. Does it work? Is it interesting? See what Eric Founder thinks of it.
I wrote a few stories for my own site that feature kids or teenagers as characters, and yet, if I had a naturist child that age, would I let them read those stories on their own?
For a few short stories, sure. And many of them were written specifically for my kids to read them when they were young so that they could find characters their age enjoying naturism.
What I didn't write, and what I didn't find, was a naturist novel aimed at children which required no explanation at all on my part.
See, in many naturist stories, the innocence of the child is present, but also the doubts and questions that the initially textile parents have. Doubts I didn't want to push on my kids.
It makes sense, because authors need to show the emotional complexity of the adults and present their emotional arc into accepting naturism.
So, I made my peace and my kids turned into adults.
Until Naked Nancy arrived!
When Marcel announced the release of a naturist novel aimed at kids, I went "Yeah, right" and then, "Really?", but I read it. And I agree that he really pulled it off!
Naked Nancy tells the story of an adventurous 10-year-old girl who sees the tree in her backyard not as a decoration but as a destination.
Almost every child sees trees at some point as a natural jungle gym to explore, and so does Nancy, but then, spots her friendly elderly neighbor in her backyard, entirely nude.
After a conversation between the two, Nancy begs her parents to explore the lifestyle and soon, the whole family enjoys nude recreation.
The thing is, Nancy's positivity and her open mind guide the book, not her parents. She sees the world the way a 10-year-old sees it. As something to discover while negotiating for freedom with your parents.
So this isn't a story sanitized to work about children, it is written for them. It's why this book works. It's not simple... it's age appropriate.
For naturist kids, it is what will let them see their own lives on paper, and for kids being introduced to the lifestyle by their parents, it is a simple conversation starter that actually respects how kids think.
And the time capsule subplot? It lets naturism become a world of adventure and exploration so that naturism isn't the whole story. It's about discovering a new world that was hidden from Nancy and her parents.
But the book does something else brilliant, which is easily missed. A book aimed at adults addresses what adults think about: routine, procedures, and responsibilities.
This is where Naked Nancy shines: it is aimed at children because it talks about what children want to read about. The joy of a summer breeze, the relaxation of a day between two school years. The pleasure of being treated as equal and important by another adult, without them guiding your life and telling you what to do.
It doesn't proselytize. It doesn't push any agenda other than letting Nancy have fun and live her summer days the best way she can.
But it does something else. Something that fills me with joy.
Nancy isn't an exceptionally gifted child. She is just ordinary in most things, something important in children's books.
What the book establishes is that she is a great climber. It's what sets up the story, her climbing her tree and spotting her nude neighbor.
In the time-capsule adventure, that skill is once again called upon just almost casually. It's what she was established as being good at.
And that is better than any Mary Sue writing where the character is just great at everything.
For now, the first is available on the Kindle Store.