Nutcracker Night

Submitted by ValentinaLy on
Author
Mireille Messier
Illustrated by
Gabrielle Grimard
Toronto, ON: Pajama Press, September, 2019
40 pp., hardcover, $22.95
ISBN
9781772780918
Grades
Preschool-grade 2
Ages
Ages 3-7
Review by
Christy den Haan-Veltman (Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy)
Excerpt

Chitter! Chatter! Chitter! Chatter! goes the crowd.

-Tickets, please! says the usher.

Pickle-dee! Zing! Boom! Ding! goes the orchestra as it tunes up.

With a diversity of audience and delightful observations, Nutcracker Night captures the magic of a young school-aged child’s visit to the ballet with her father. The Nutcracker, a classic ballet, comes to life as a true auditory experience. Without losing the simple narrative, the book is rich with vocabulary words to indicate sounds. The book’s large size makes it perfect to share, either in your lap or with a class.

The pen and ink with watercolour illustrations are both detailed and energetic. Many close-up images evoke the intimacy of the performance. The book concludes with a synopsis of the story told by The Nutcracker as well as history of the ballet and its current cultural significance.

Highly Recommended
Reviewer

Christy den Haan-Veltman is currently a teacher-librarian at New Westminster Secondary School in New Westminster, British Columbia.