Day Twenty
The Nutcracker
retold by Rita Balducci
Illustrated by Barbara Lanza
1991
I have a confession. I had never read The Nutcracker until today. And . . . I have never seen The Nutcracker ballet. Anyone else?
The illustrations in this book are beautiful!
This is a story about a little girl named Clara and her adventurous Christmas Eve. Her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer gave her a large wooden nutcracker for Christmas. But her little brother, Fritz, grabbed it and ran away. He dropped it and the nutcracker broke. She was heartbroken.
She fell asleep hugging it. When she awoke, the nutcracker had turned into a handsome prince. She saved him from large mice and he took her to the Land of Sweets.
The people there performed beautiful dances for Clara and the prince.
There was a Sugar Plum Fairy, a Dew Drop Fairy and Clara's favorite, Mother Ginger.
They left in a sleigh drawn by two reindeer. But he promised they would come back to the Land of Sweets on Christmas Eve every year.
I am so glad I finally read this book. If you haven't, maybe you can read it too, and enjoy the dances in the Land of Sweets.
Posted by Janet F. Smart on Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch.
I have only seen "The Nutcracker" ballet once, when my girls were little. It was beautiful. I love the music. You have an amazing collection of Christmas books.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day!
Excellent choice, Janet! Great review of a cherished story. (I wanna go to the Land of Sweets!) I always thought it sounded glorious. :-)
ReplyDeleteAs you already know from my previous blog post, this is a family favorite for us. I found another Nutcracker book downstairs, well after I posted about the others we had. :)
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