Misha and Marie are thrilled that Christmas is coming. It’s a frosty night, the neighbors are all invited, and Peter the stable boy is sweeping the barn in preparation for the dancing to come. But there’s a disappointment in store. Instead of the beautiful doll she’d hoped for, the only thing strange old Uncle Nikolai has for Marie is a wooden nutcracker. Marie thinks it’s a wonderful gift. Little does she know that it will lead her and her brother on the adventure of a lifetime.
When Misha and Marie finally go to bed on Christmas Eve, they sleep fitfully and are beset by nightmares. In one particularly bad dream, they join forces — unusual for the squabbling children — and conquer an army that might harm the nutcracker. Their reward is splendid: they are swept to the realm of the Snow Queen for a night of wonders.
James Kudelka, the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada, is one of North America’s foremost dance artists. His vision of The Nutcracker is elegantly told by Karen Kain and beautifully rendered by artist Rajka Kupesic, herself a ballet dancer.

Based on the National Ballet of Canada's production of The Nutcracker ballet, this story features a dreamlike Russian setting. This less-familiar version has a battle between the stuffed cats and dogs in Marie's toy cupboard and the stable boy, Peter, as the initiators of Marie and her brother Misha's trip to the realm of the Snow Queen. The sumptuous feast comes alive and dances, so that the children do not get to eat it and the whole production ends with flowers as a promise of spring to come before the children awake in their own beds. Kupesic's elegant oil paintings depict elongated characters in a fanciful setting designed with swirls and curls of icy branches and lush frosted puffs of snow on the landscape. It would be helpful for readers less familiar with this tale to have some author's note or provenance setting the story in relation to the more familiar E.T.A. Hoffman's version, but this version stands on its own as a story of dreams in the midst of harsh weather realities. 2005, Tundra Books, Ages 6 to 10.

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