Jan Brett's the Nutcracker - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Jan Brett's Christmas classic now features an invitation to access music from the ballet performed by the Boston Pops!

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.

Like Jan Brett's classics The Mitten and The Night Before Christmas., this is sure to make the perfect gift. The book includes an invitation to watch a video with Jan's art paired with music by Tchaikovsky from the Boston Pops performance of "A Christmas Tale: Suite from The Nutcracker."

Review Quotes

"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. . . A Christmas confection laced with an Old World sensibility." --Publisher's Weekly

"Brett pulls out all the stops for this lush and faithful retelling of Hoffmann's tale and Tchaikovsky's ballet, guiding readers through the story with clear visual references to the latter's music and the dances. . . . Brett sets the story in a Russia filled with snowy exteriors and sumptuous scenes of the ballet's Christmas party, the dramatic vanquishing of the Mouse King, and the rest of Marie's magical adventures with the Nutcracker-turned-real-boy." --The Horn Book

"Brett applies her signature visual storytelling style to the Christmas favorite. By setting her tale in a snowy, 19th-century Russian city and including in her trademark marginal vignettes both golden musical staves crowded with notes and animal instrumentalists clad in traditional Russian attire, Brett situates this retelling in Tchaikovsky's ballet . . . Russian animals replace the ethnically stereotyped sweets of the ballet, with arctic foxes, flying squirrels, and hedgehogs taking turns in a snowy wonderland." --Kirkus Reviews

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