The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet (Pictureback(R)) Paperback – Picture Book, September 1, 1986

Perfect for ages 4-7. Classic short Christmas story with beautiful pages for little ones.

A charming re-telling of The Nutcracker, drawn for about 4 to 5 year olds. It holds attention well, is close enough to many versions of the ballet to be a link to performances.The colors are particularly eye-catching and attractive. Maria (Clara) is definitely the center of this version, and she is portrayed as a sweet, adorable little girl in pink sashes, with a tender heart and considerable courage when faced by the Mouse King.A fine gift for a little girl at Christmas time and enjoyable too by older lasses throughout the year. Might be fun if accompanied by a good version of the music.No user alerts!

Great little book to help my grand daughter (4 yrs old) better understand the story of the Nutcracker. She was in the community ballet as a mouse and was thrilled to have such a wonderful experience with this delightful story over Christmas holiday. Recommend this book to all. Beautifully illustrated, simple language to understand by even young children. Love it!

Sweet picture version of the ballet. The paper quality was good (it's a regular soft picture book--not a board book). The story followed the general story of the Nutcracker. This would have been very helpful for my 4 year old and me to read together before going to the ballet so she could know the story. However, Amazon messed up the shipping and even though it was supposed to get there three days before, it showed up the day after. Thanks, Amazon. But the book itself was great. And reading it the day after seeing the ballet was still fun, even though my 4 year old immediately wanted to go see the ballet again....Good story, good quality book, good synopsis of the ballet. Bad Amazon shipping.

Exactly what I was looking for - a children's version of the Nutcracker Ballet story.

My great nephew was entranced with a live production of this ballent, and I bought this book and a cd of the musical score for him to extend his pleasure. He absolutely loves to listen to the music while looking at the illustrations, and asks to bring the book and the music along on car rides. Children who can read at a third or fourth grade level should be able to read the text independently. The illustrations are a colorful reminder of the costumes and choreography.

Clara or Marie!? A question that everyone has their own opinion on.....That being said, I bought the kindle version of this story. It is a nice, non-scary way to introduce the story of the Nutcracker. I use the cloud reader to display this on the projector for the kids to see. A short, nice read for the younger grades.

I bought this book to read with my 4 year old before I took her to the ballet so she would know what was going on. The art work is amazing and the story is told very well. It has more words than she is used to reading in a book, but it held her attention to the end. I would recommend it to someone with kids younger than elementary school age.