E.T.A. HOFFMANN'S THE NUTCRACKER
From the Cozy Classics series
adapted by Jack Wang & Holman Wang ; illustrated by Jack Wang with Holman Wang
The holiday favorite gets the Cozy Classics treatment.
The felt dolls are back, this time presenting The Nutcracker. The classic story is narrowed down to 11 words and laid out in the same format the Wangs used for Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (2013) and Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (2016). Unlike those adaptations, which struggled under the weight of epic tomes, this board book adapts a simpler story and comes off much better. The text (“gift / sleep / mouse / fight / throw / go / snow / sweets / dance / wake / love”) is made of basic words that little readers will be able to grasp, but even so, adult readers will probably have to fill in some blanks in the narrative. The cute photos of posed dolls will be adored by parents entranced by Pinterest and Etsy. The twee aesthetic does have a Christmas-like charm that suits this adaptation well.
A sweet stocking stuffer.
(Board book. 2-4)