Jan Brett's The Nutcracker
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Jan Brett's striking illustrations and the Christmas classic The Nutcracker are a match made in picture book heaven.
When Marie and her brother Fritz receive a special Christmas nutcracker from their uncle, Marie immediately feels something magical. "He looks like a real boy," she mused. "A real boy with a secret, who came from far away."
This feeling is only the beginning of the epic adventure she goes on with the Nutcracker—into the cabinet, through the battle with the mice, and finally to the magical land of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Jan Brett makes this classic her own by setting it in snowy Russia and adding whimsical touches to the favorite elements of the traditional ballet. Enjoying this book will be an instant Christmas tradition for families who love the ballet and those new to the story.
As perfect a gift as Jan Brett's classics The Mitten and The Night Before Christmas.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous Christmas story of the girl and the wooden nutcracker receives Brett's signature treatment in this picture book rendition, which features rich embellishments, white characters in elaborate period costumes, intricate movement and detail, and vignettes around many spreads' borders. Keeping to the story's well-known arc, Brett imagines visual variations in watercolor and gouache spreads that interweave moments from the ballet. Instead of human characters, animals are cast in the traditional second act: Bears dance the Russian Trepak, Arctic foxes perform the Danse Arabe ("their foxtails entwining"), and reindeer with candles on their antlers accompany Marie to a gingerbread house, where waltzing hedgehogs' quills are studded with tiny yellow flowers. Vivid, descriptive language adds further depth: "The sleigh glided through a dreamland of icicles until they heard lively music—molto vivace—playing." A Christmas confection laced with an Old World sensibility. Ages 4–8.
