A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas

October 26, 2009
Based on Covert and Mills's musical of the same name, when Fritz breaks his sister Clara's nutcracker, his parents take away Mouse Hunter 5000, his beloved video game. Finding the key to the toy closet, he plays anyway, but then the vengeful Mouse King materializes, wanting to ruin Christmas. Fritz is joined by a tiny but formidable Nutcracker girl; they sail to Toy Town, a magical world of living toys, for a showdown with the Mouse King. The sequential panels and text bubbles incorporated into Swain's kinetic visuals complement the clever concept. A CD with a read-aloud and songs from the musical is included. Ages 4–8.

October 1, 2009
K-Gr 4-This spin-off on the classic story is based on a musical play that is being staged in Chicago during the 2009 holiday season. The focus here is on Fritz, who accidentally releases the evil Mouse King from the video game where he had been trapped. With the help of the Nutcracker, a girl named Marie, he travels to Christmas Wood, a magical place where toys are readied for Christmas giving, and sends the Mouse King back to the video game where he belongs. An accompanying CD includes a track of the author reading the story to a musical background and five songs from the musical. Busy, heavily stylized acrylic, oil, and colored-pencil cartoons are appropriate to the text. This nutty tale may be delightful on stage, but it falls flat as a picture book."Virginia Walter, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, CA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2010
After Fritz breaks his sister Clara's nutcracker, he's deprived of his Mouse Hunter 5000 video game. An encounter with the Mouse King and a "real live NUTCRACKER!" (female) gets Fritz into the holiday spirit. The illustrations, which are somewhat more cohesive than the aggressively fragmented text, occasionally display subdued grandeur. An accompanying CD features Covert's read-aloud and music.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)