The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker by Jessica Courtney-Tickle (Children's, Picture book, 10E/10E)

It's as stunning as it looks, with luxurious feel to the cover

 October 2017, Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 24 pages, Hardback, Review copy

Summary from Quarto

Follow Clara on a magical Christmas adventure in this retelling of the classic ballet story. Watch the Nutcracker battle the Mouse King, meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and journey to the Land of Sweets, where wonder and excitement await...

Including music from: 'The Dance of the Reed Flutes', 'The Waltz of Flowers' and 'The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy'.

Nayu's thoughts 

You must read this book!!! It's the story of one of my favourite ballets, The Nutcracker (a fairytale), with stunning illustrations and a luxurious feeling cover. The classic tale is retold well, hopefully opening up new fans of ballet/fairytales/classical music, but that's not what has me so excited. You may have guessed from the title and definitely the synopsis that music is involved. Knowing how much I adore The Nutcracker saying yes to rhis review was a no-brainer. 

As soon as it arrived I took out the protective strip on the sound part, started reading and pressed the first press part. The clips of music are epic!!!!! They are short, but the familiar notes filled me with joy as they teamed up with the appropriate parts in the story. Unlike some sound books, I didn't have to press the same button over and over for each scene-every clip has a different position on the clever pressing sound technology page (which activates even with a few pages covering it). I think this will entice readers to check out longer versions of the music, which in their entirety are even more of a pleasure to listen to. I'm excited to see the next book in this series! (I think there are going to be more books). 

Find out more on Jessica's website.  

Suggested read

 If you love fairytales you must check out the series of books about a girl who is the hairdresser for all the fairytale characters! I chat with the author online (so am heavily biased), and she is paired with an equally talented illustrator: The Fairytale Hairdresser and the Little Mermaid by Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard (Children's, Picture book, 10E/10E)