Jan Brett's The Nutcracker

A New York Times Bestseller

“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