Belgian author and artist An Leysen, who has retold such fairy-tales as Beauty and the Beast and Baba Yaga, here turns her attention to the classic Christmas story of The Nutcracker. When Clara is given a toy nutcracker by her Uncle Drosselmeier on Christmas Eve, she is soon involved in a fantastical adventure in which she learns the story of Princess Pierlepat, travels to a magical land of sweets, and helps to break an old curse that has trapped a brave soldier inside the nutcracker's body...

Leysen seems to have based her presentation of The Nutcracker more on the original story, as told by E.T.A. Hoffmann (and then Alexandre Dumas, père), than on the later ballet. She has included the back story, explaining how the Nutcracker came to be cursed, and focuses more on the resolution of that story, than on the visit to the land of sweets, which is only briefly described. Here the Sugar Plum Fairy's role is largely that of lifting the curse. Given that all of this is so, I was surprised that Leysen used the name Clara for her heroine, rather than Marie, as the former is associated almost exclusively with the ballet, and the latter with the original fairy-tale. However that may be, I enjoyed this telling, and I enjoyed the gorgeous artwork, which alternates between beautifully colorful spreads and those done in a sort of sepia-toned outline. Recommended to fans of the artist, and to anyone looking for beautiful picture-book presentations of this story. ( )