DONUTRINA IN THE NUTCRACKER SWEET

A rodent who lives to dance doesn’t let her diminutive size keep her in the wings.

A little gray mouse has dancing dreams—“BIG, showstopping, some-day-dance-with-the-Sugar-Plum-Fairy dreams.” When three animals who are playing snowflakes in a production of The Nutcracker tell her she’s too small to join them onstage—“You’re too tiny for a tutu!”—the mouse dances over to a doughnut shop, slips a purple-glazed sprinkle-flecked beauty around her waist, and voilà: She’s a Donutrina! Donutrina invites three friends to dance with her, but they’re self-conscious: Hippopotamus feels too big, Giraffe feels too tall, and Porcupine simply notes, “I’m a porcupine.” Donutrina has the solution: Hippopotamus becomes a Pizzarina, Giraffe becomes a Cake-arina, and Porcupine becomes a Porcupina Popcornina (obviously!). Together, dozens of animals in alluringly bizarro dance attire (some of which is a little hard to identify) pirouette and jeté in the street, inspiring the onlooking Sugar Plum Fairy (who appears to be a gazelle) to invite everyone to dance with her in a “Nutcracker spectacular.” Young readers may not know the phrase “body positivity,” but they won’t miss this jubilant tale’s underlying anti-sizeist message, not to mention the story’s suggestion that anything can be (wearable) art. Yoon’s flouncy-woozy mixed-media illustrations, which are dusted with confectionery colors, keep the spotlight on the book’s swirling, twirling star, who has the grace of a prima donutrina.

A wondrously weird confection with a nutritious message.