1. Adapted from E.T.A. Hoffman's tale The Nutcracker and The Mouse King of 1816, and the ballet composed by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky and choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in 1892
2. Contains a list of 8 fun facts about The Nutcracker at the end of the book
3. Revolves around the Christmas holiday
4. Library program: Nutcracker Tea Party, with the sweets that were mentioned in the book - https://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com/2013/12/nutcracker-tea-party.html
5. Magical and fun Nutcracker crafts for kids of all ages: https://www.steamsational.com/nutcracker-crafts-for-kids/
6. Large illustrations with minimal text on each page to allow for an engaging, immersive experience
7. Would make for an interactive read aloud - one page even requires the reader to turn the book 90 degrees so they can see how large the Christmas tree is ( )

This story is based off the classic NYC Ballet. It's about a little girl and her dream of shrinking down, getting attacked by an evil rat king, then getting saved by the nutcracker prince and they go through adventures.

This story is a great Christmas classic and could be used in the classroom because it talks about different cultures by using things such as Arabian coffee and Chinese tea. It also could be used to help with descriptive writing for having words such as "explosive", "emerged", and "triumphant" ( )

No matter how many times I read the story, or watch the ballet, I am always mesmerized at the sheer beauty and creativity of the story. In particular, the illustrations of Valerie Docampo are lovely. ( )

Beautiful illustrations and story of the classic tale of the Nutcracker.
Classroom:
This book could be used during a Fine Arts lesson with the book being the introduction to the not only the classic tale of the nutcracker, but also the classical music as well as ballet.